Works

All men are fond of rule and place,
Though granted by the mean and base;
Yet all superior merit fly,
Nor will endure an equal nigh.
They o'er some ale-house club preside...

A lion, sick of pomp and state,
Resolved his cares to delegate.
Reynard was viceroy named - the crowd
Of courtiers to the regent bowed;
Wolves, bears, and tigers stoop and bend,...

Accept, my Prince, the moral fable,
To youth ingenuous, profitable.
Nobility, like beauty's youth,
May seldom hear the voice of truth;
Or mark and learn the fact betimes...

Nothing, methinks, is to be seen
On earth that does not overween.
Doth not the hawk, from high, survey
The fowls as destined for his prey?
And do not C'sars, and such things,...

(To my Native Land.)


My native land, whose fertile ground
Neptune and Amphitrite bound, -
Britain, of trade the chosen mart,
The seat of industry and art, -
May never luxury or minister...

The wind was high, the window shook,
The miser woke with haggard look;
He stalked along the silent room,
He shivered at the gleam and gloom,
Each lock and every corner eyed,...

"Give me a son, grant me an heir!"
The fairies granted her the prayer.
And to the partial parent's eyes
Was never child so fair and wise;
Waked to the morning's pleasing joy,...

He who holds friendship with a knave,
Will reputation hardly save;
And thus upon our choice of friends
Our good or evil name depends.

A wrinkled hag - of naughty fame -...

Once an old hen led forth her brood
To scratch and glean and peck for food;
A chick, to give her wings a spell,
Fluttered and tumbled in a well.
The mother wept till day was done,...

An owl took, in a barn, a station
As fittest for deep contemplation;
There (like a Turk) upon a beam
He sat, as Turks sit in hareem.

So smokers, at the Magpie met,...

(To a Mother.)


Yes, I have seen your eyes maternal
Beam, as beam forth the stars eternal,
Intercommuning of your joys -
Sayings and doings of your boys.
Nature, in body and in mind,...

(To a Young Heir.)


No sooner was thy father's death
Proclaimed to some, with bated breath,
Than every gambler was agog
To win your rents and gorge your prog.
...

A sage awakened by the dawn,
By music of the groves was drawn
From tree to tree: responsive notes
Arose from many warbling throats.
As he advanced, the warblers ceased;...

A pin which long had done its duty,
Attendant on a reigning beauty, -
Had held her muffler, fixed her hair,
And made its mistress _debonnaire_, -
Now near her heart in honour placed,...

Of all the burthens mortals bear
Time is most galling and severe;
Beneath his grievous load oppressed
We daily meet a man distressed:
"I've breakfasted, and what to do
I do not know; we dine at two."...

The moralist, my dear niece, has said that -

"The man of sense will read a work of note
In the like humour as the author wrote."
...

Pythagoras, at daybreak drawn
To meditate on dewy lawn,
To breathe the fragrance of the morning,
And, like philosophers, all scorning
To think or care where he was bound,...

I scorn the man who builds his fame
On ruins of another's name:
As prudes, who prudishly declare
They by a sister scandaled are;
As scribblers, covetous of praise,...

A hungry wolf had thinned the fold,
Safely he refuged on the wold;
And, as in den secure he lay,
The thefts of night regaled his day.
The shepherd's dog, who searched the glen,...

"Is there no hope?" the sick man said.
The silent doctor shook his head,
And took his leave with unfeigned sorrow
To lose a patient on the morrow.
When left alone, the dying man...