This verse be thine, my friend, nor thou refuse This from no venal or ungrateful Muse. Whether thy hand strike out some free design, Where life awakes, and dawns at every line;...
As some fond virgin, whom her mother's care Drags from the town to wholesome country air, Just when she learns to roll a melting eye, And hear a spark, yet think no danger nigh;...
Such were the notes thy once-loved Poet sung, Till Death untimely stopp'd his tuneful tongue. Oh just beheld and lost! admired and mourn'd! With softest manners, gentlest arts adorn'd!...
To this sad shrine, whoe'er thou art, draw near; Here lies the friend most loved, the son most dear: Who ne'er knew joy, but friendship might divide, Or gave his father grief but when he died. ...
A pleasing form; a firm, yet cautious mind; Sincere, though prudent; constant, yet resign'd: Honour unchanged, a principle profess'd, Fix'd to one side, but moderate to the rest:...
If modest youth, with cool reflection crown'd, And every opening virtue blooming round, Could save a parent's justest pride from fate, Or add one patriot to a sinking state;...
Under this marble, or under this sill, Or under this turf, or e'en what they will; Whatever an heir, or a friend in his stead, Or any good creature shall lay o'er my head,...
When Eastern lovers feed the funeral fire, On the same pile the faithful pair expire. Here pitying Heaven that virtue mutual found, And blasted both, that it might neither wound....
Fair charmer, cease! nor make your voice's prize, A heart resign'd, the conquest of your eyes: Well might, alas! that threaten'd vessel fail, Which winds and lightning both at once assail....
Ne Rubeam, Pingui donatus Munere (Horace, Epistles II.i.267) While you, great patron of mankind, sustain The balanc'd world, and open all the main; Your country, chief, in arms abroad defend,...
In vain you boast Poetic Names of yore, And cite those Sapho's we admire no more: Fate doom'd the Fall of ev'ry Female Wit, But doom'd it then when first Ardelia writ. Of all Examples by the World confest,...
Fain would my Muse the flow'ry Treasures sing, And humble glories of the youthful Spring; Where opening Roses breathing sweets diffuse, And soft Carnations show'r their balmy dews;...
Parson, these things in thy possessing Are better than the Bishop's blessing. A Wife that makes conserves; a Steed That carries double when there's need: October store, and best Virginia,...
In ev'ry Town, where Thamis rolls his Tyde, A narrow pass there is, with Houses low; Where ever and anon, the Stream is ey'd, And many a Boat soft sliding to and fro....
Here, shunning idleness at once and praise, This radiant pile nine rural sisters raise; The glittering emblem of each spotless dame, Clear as her soul and shining as her frame;...