Ah! why does still that well-known strain Their lenient balm to soothe thy woe: Ye Powers, who piety and truth reward, While round thy cradle Pity's doves Fond hovering pour'd their tender moan, And all the pure and guiltless loves Exulting, hail'd thee for their own: They fled, repell'd by Wisdom's frown severe, Cease, then, dear partner of my breast, For virtue's purest rays are thine : Her cheering beams should gild thy languid hours Oh! why with selfish sorrow mourn, Nor mourn thy banish'd EDWIN's fate, Though far remov'd from hope and thee; Nor pining view with vain regret Unerring Wisdom's stern decree. Though filial love thy tenderest sorrows claim, And every virtue brighten EDWIN's name. While Wisdom sways thy EDWIN's breast, The pensive pleasures haunt his bowers. When filial duty sway'd thy heart, And bade thee EDWIN'S Vows decline, With sad reluctance see him part, And every tender wish resign : With weeping admiration I beheld, And sadly triumph'd while my friend excell❜d. Let Grecia boast the duteous dame Whose breast sustain'd her captive sire; The Muses consecrate her name, And crowds her pictur'd form admire: With conscious pride, heroic maid, I see The Grecian daughter far outshone by thee! The milky stream spontaneous flow'd, And Nature cry'd-Preserve his life! Whose struggling heart has bled at duty's shrine ! TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF YORK, WITH AN INVALID SOLDIER'S PETITION. By a concurrence of odd circumstances, partly owing to his ignorance of the English language, the poor man who is the subject of this address, missed getting his certificate for the Chelsea pension when his regiment was disbanded; but being in pretty easy circumstances, he married, took a farm, and put up quietly with the privation. Growing into years, however, and finding his cattle diminish in proportion as his family increased, he was advised to set earnestly about obtaining the object here solicited. Two officers were yet living who happened to be beisde him when he fell, in consequence of his wound, on the heights of Abram. They signed his Petition, and the Muse seconded it, just thirty years after that event took place, by the following poem sent inclosed to Her Royal Highness the DUCHESS OF YORK. The humane reader will be pleased to hear, that the application proved successful, FROM the recesses of this wild domain, Where artless truth and simple manners reign, The blushing Muse conveys the humble plea To soothe thy princely ear, or reach thy heart. Has left rich trophies of undying bays: Yet though they oft made hostile squadrons yield, The brave man's patron, and the good man's friend! |