Works

Written When The News Arrived. To the March in Scipio.


Toll for the brave!
The brave that are no more;
All sunk beneath the wave,
Fast by their native shore!

...

Could Homer come himself, distress'd and poor,
And tune his harp at Rhedicina's door,
The rich old vixen would exclaim (I fear),
'Begone! no tramper gets a farthing here.'

Ye sister Pow'rs who o'er the sacred groves
Preside, and, Thou, fair mother of them all
Mnemosyne,[1] and thou, who in thy grot
Immense reclined at leisure, hast in charge...

Round Thurlow's head in early youth,
And in his sportive days,
Fair Science pour'd the light of truth,
And Genius shed his rays.


See! with united wonder cried
The experienced and the sage,...

When, long sequester'd from his throne,
George took his seat again,
By right of worth, not blood alone,
Entitled here to reign,


Then loyalty, with all his lamps
New trimm'd, a gallant show!...

(in the manner of homer.)


The straw-stuff'd hamper with his ruthless steel
He open'd, cutting sheer th' inserted cords
Which bound the lid and lip secure. Forth came...

O that those lips had language! Life has pass'd
With me but roughly since I heard thee last.
Those lips are thine'thy own sweet smile I see,
The same that oft in childhood solaced me;...

When wit and genius meet their doom
In all-devouring flame,
They tell us of the fate of Rome,
And bid us fear the same.


O'er Murray's loss the muses wept,
They felt the rude alarm,...

I shall not ask Jean Jaques Rousseau[1]
If birds confabulate or no;
'Tis clear, that they were always able
To hold discourse, at least in fable;
And e'en the child who knows no better...

Quales aerii montis de vertice nubes
Cum surgunt, et jam Boreae tumida ora quierunt,
Caelum hilares abdit spissa caligine vultus,
Nimbosumque nives aut imbres cogitat aether:...

When darkness long has veil'd my mind,
And smiling day once more appears;
Then, my Redeemer, then I find
The folly of my doubts and fears.


Straight I upbraid my wandering heart,...

Video meliora proboque,
Deteriora sequor.


I own I am shock'd at the purchase of slaves,
And fear those who buy them and sell them are knaves;...

Sin has undone our wretched race,
But Jesus has restored,
And brought the sinner face to face
With his forgiving Lord.


This we repeat, from year to year,
And press upon our youth;...

Of all the gifts thine hand bestows,
Thou Giver of all good!
Not heaven itself a richer knows
Than my Redeemer's blood.


Faith too, the blood-receiving grace,
From the same hand we gain;...

There is a fountain fill'd with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel's veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.


The dying thief rejoiced to see...

Bestow, dear Lord, upon our youth
The gift of saving grace;
And let the seed of sacred truth
Fall in a fruitful place.


Grace is a plant, where'er it grows,
Of pure and heavenly root;...

Gracious Lord, our children see,
By thy mercy we are free;
But shall these, alas! remain
Subjects still of Satan's reign?
Israel's young ones, when of old
Pharaoh threaten'd to withhold,[1]...

Lord, who hast suffer'd all for me,
My peace and pardon to procure,
The lighter cross I bear for thee,
Help me with patience to endure.


The storm of loud repining hush,...

When the blest seed of Terah's faithful Son,[1]
After long toil their liberty had won,
And past from Pharian[2] fields to Canaan Land,
Led by the strength of the Almighty's hand,...

Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose,
The spectacles set them unhappily wrong;
The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,
To which the said spectacles ought to belong.
...