Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

EPISTLE

то

A FRIEND,

ON THE DEATH OF

JOHN THORNTON, Esq

CUJUS EGO INTERITU TOTA DE MENTE FUGAVI HÆC STUDIA, ATQUE OMNES DELICIAS ANIMI.

NOTESCATQUE MAGIS MORTUUS ATQUE MAGIS. CATULLUS.

E 2

1 A4

EPIST L E, &c.

IN vain, dear Monitor, thy kind defire

To wake the embers of poetic fire!

To clear the mind, where Grief's dark shadows lower, And Fancy dies by Sorrow's freezing power!

5

In vain would Friendship's chearing voice fuggeft
Her flattering vifions to the Poet's breast;
That public favour calls, with juft demand,
Th' expected volume from his lingering hand:
Loft are those anxious hopes, that eager pride,
With thee, my THORNTON, they declin'd, they died. 10
Friend of my opening foul! whofe love began
To hail thy Poet, ere he rank'd as man!

Whose praise, like dew-drops, which the early morn
Sheds with mild virtue on the vernal thorn,

Taught his young mind each fwell of thought to fhew, 15
And gave the germs of fancy ftrength to blow !
Dear, firm affociate of his ftudious hour,
Who led his idler ftep to Learning's bower!

E 3

Tho'

Tho' young, imparting to his giddier youth
Thy thirft of science, and thy zeal for truth!

Ye towers of Granta, where our friendship grew, And that pure mind expanded to my view,

Our love fraternal let thy walls atteft,

Where Attic joys our letter'd evening bleft;

20

Where midnight, from the chains of fleep reliev'd, 25 Stole on our focial ftudies unperceiv'd!

But not, my
THORNTON! in that calm alone
Was thy mild genius, thy warm virtue known:
When manhood mark'd the hour for bufy ftrife,
And led us to the crowded maze of life,

From whence to sweet retirement's foothing fhade,
Love and the Muse thy willing friend convey'd;
Thy foul, more firm to join the ftruggling crowd,
To nobler Themis toilfome homage vow'd,
With zeal, devoting to her facred throne
A heart as uncorrupted as her own.

Still as thy mind, with manly powers endued,
The opening path of active life pursued,
And round the ripening field of business rang'd,
Thy heart, unwarp'd, unharden'd, uneftrang'd,
To early friendship ftill retain'd its truth,
With all the warm integrity of youth.

Whene'er affliction's force thy friend oppreft,
Thou wer't the rock on which his cares might reft;

From thy kind words his rifing hopes would own.

The charm of reafon in affection's tone.
Where is the foothing voice of equal power,
To take it's anguish from the prefent hour?
Beneath the preffure of a grief so just,
The lenient aid of books in vain I trust:

30

35

40

45

50 They,

They, that could once the war of thought controul,
And banish difcord from the jarring foul,

Now irritate the mind they used to heal,
They fpeak too loudly of the lofs I feel.

Thou faithful cenfor of the Poet's strain, No more fhalt thou his finking hope sustain,

55

No more, with ardent zeal's enlivening fire,
Call from inglorious fhades his filent lyre:
No more, as in our days of pleasure past,
The eye of judgment o'er his labours caft;
Keen to difcern the blemishes, that lurk
In the loofe texture of his growing work;
Eager to praife, yet refolute to blame,
Kind to his verfe, but kinder to his fame.

60

How may the Mufe, who profper'd by thy care, 65 Now meet the public eye without despair? Now, if harsh cenfures on her failings pour,

Her warmest advocate can speak no more :

Cold are thofe lips, which breath'd the kind defence,
If fpleen's proud cavil ftrain'd her tortur'd sense;
Which bade her fong to public praise aspire,
And call'd attention to her trembling lyre.
Ah! could the now, thus petrified with grief,
Find in fome lighter lay a vain relief,

Still must she deem such verse, if such could be,
A wound to friendship, and a crime to thee
Profanely utter'd at this facred time,

;

When thy pale corfe demands her plaintive rhime,
And Virtue, weeping whom she could not fave,
Calls the juft mourner to thy recent grave.

E 4

70

75

80

Hail

« PredošláPokračovať »