Alone in Nature's wealth array'd, To Cattraeth's vale in glitt'ring row Flush'd with mirth, and hope they burn: And I, the meanest of them all, That live to weep, and sing their fall. SONNET* ON THE DEATH OF MR. RICHARD WEST. IN vain to me the smiling Mornings shine, And redd'ning Phoebus lifts his golden fire: The birds in vain their amorous descant join; Or chearful fields resume their green attire: These ears, alas! for other notes repine, A different object do these eyes require: My lonely anguish melts no heart but mine; And in my breast the imperfect joys expire. Yet Morning smiles the busy race to chear, And new-born pleasure brings to happier men: The fields to all their wonted tribute bear: To warm their little loves the birds complain; I fruitless mourn to him, that cannot hear, And weep the more, because I weep in vain. * Now first published. See Memoirs, Sect. 8. EPITAPH I. ON *MRS. CLARKE. LO! where this silent Marble weeps, She felt the Wound she left behind. Sits smiling on a Father's woe: *This Lady, the Wife of Dr. Clarke, Physician at Epsom, died April 27, 1757; and is buried in the Church of Beckenham, Kent. Whom what awaits, while yet he strays Along the lonely vale of days? A Pang, to secret sorrow dear; A Sigh; an unavailing Tear; "Till Time shall ev'ry grief remove, With Life, with Memory, and with Love EPITAPH II. ON SIR WILLIAM WILLIAMS. HERE, foremost in the dangerous paths of fame, Young Williams fought for England's fair renown; His mind each muse, each grace adorn'd his frame, Nor Envy dar'd to view him with a frown. At Aix his voluntary sword he drew, This Epitaph (hitherto unpublished) was written at the request of Mr. Frederick Montagu, who intended to have inscribed it on a Monument at Bellisle, at the siege of which this accomplished youth was killed, 1761; but from some difficulty attending the erection of it, this design was not executed. |