The lady Abbess oft would cry,
If any sister strode away,
Or prov'd an idle slattern,
"See wise and pious Mrs. Jane,
"A life so strict, so grave a mien,
"Is sure a worthy pattern."
A pert young slut at length replies,
"Experience, Madam, makes fools wise,
"""Tis that has made her such :
"And we, poor souls, no doubt, should be
"As pious, and as wife as she,
"If we had seen as much."
JUVENILE TRAGEDY HEROES.
How it pains one to see in the tragedy line,
Of both sexes adventurers aiming to shine,
Without any pretensions from nature or art,
To appear with address in a capital part;
Who no passion with energy ever express,
Who with rage never rouze you, nor melt with
distress ;
But stand out in each character drowsily tame,
And no passports can win to dramatical fame ;
Who of bursting applause never heard the loud roar,
But provoke all around them to cry out-No more.
Inscribed over a gentleman's chimney-piece, near Barnsley.
Free with that, and free with me;
Free to pass the harmless joke,
And the tube sedately smoke;
Free to drink-just what they please,
As at home, and at their ease;
Free to speak, and free to think-
No informers with me drink :
Free to stay a night, or so;
When uneasy, free to go."
An easy mien, engaging in address,
Looks, which at once, each winning grace express;
A life, where love and truth are ever join'd,
A nature, ever great, ever kind;
A wisdom solid, and a judgment clear,
The smile indulgent, and a soul sincere ;
Meek without meanness, gentle and humane;
Fond of improving, but yet never vain ;
So justly good, so faithful to his friend,
Ever obliging, cautious to offend;
A mind, where gen'rous pity stands confess'd;
Ready to ease and succour the distress'd;
If these respect and admiration raise,
They surely must demand our greatest praise;
In one bright view th' accomplish'd youth we see,
These virtues all are thine-and thou art he.
"God bless the king! God bless our faith's de
what harm in blessing the pre
Who is pretender, or who is king?
God bless us all :-'tis quite another thing.
EXTEMPORE ON THE LATE WAR.
Whene'er contending parties fight,
For private pique, or public right;
Armies are rais'd, the fleets are mann'd,
They combat both by sea and land.
When after many battles past,
Both tir'd with blows, make peace at last
What is it, after all, they get?
Why! Widows, taxes, wooden-legs, and debt!!!
MUTUAL PITY.
Tom, ever jovial, ever gay,
To appetite a slave,
Still whores and drinks his life away,
And laughs to see me grave.
'Tis thus that we two disagree,
So diffrent is our whim;
The fellow fondly laughs at me-
While I could cry for him.
Mill, Thunder, Hammer, lay your noise aside;
Your notes are whispers to my tuneful bride.
She drowns all noises, thunder, mill, and hammer,
I wish I wish she'd drown herself—God d—n her ¦
"Pray, say what's that, which smirking trips this
That powder'd thing, so neat, so trim, so gay ?
Adorn'd with tambour'd vest, and spangled sword,
That supple, servile thing?-O! that's a Lord!
You jest that thing a Peer? an English Peer?
Who ought, (with head, estate, and conscience clear,)
Either in grave debate, or hardy fight,
Firmly maintain a free-born people's right:
Surely those Lords were of another breed,
Who met their monarch John, at Runnemede ;
And clad in steel, there, in a glorious hour;
Made the curb'd tyrant feel the people's pow'r ;
Made him confess beneath that awful rod,
Their voice united is the voice of God."
"If in that breast, so good, so pure, Compassion ever lov'd to dwell,
Pity the sorrows I endure,
The cause I must not-dare not tell.
That grief that on my quiet prays
That rends my heart-that checks my tongue;
I fear will last me all my days,
But feel it will not last me long."
"Beauty is but a vain, a fleeting good,
A shining gloss that fadeth suddenly;
A flower that dies when almost in the bud,
A brittle glass that breaketh presently.
A fleeting good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,
Lost, faded, broken, dead, within an hour.
As goods, when lost, we know, are seldom found,
As fading gloss no rubbing can excite
As flowers, when dead, are trampled on the ground,
As broken glass no cement can unite;
So beauty blemish'd once, is ever lost,
In spite of physic, painting, pains and cost."
ON A LADY PRESENTING A GENTLEMAN WITH
SOME FRUIT.
Now Priam's son, thou may'st be mute,
For I can proudly vie with thee:
Thou to the fairest, gave the fruit,
The fairest gave the fruit to me.
ON A LADY ASKING THE AUTHOR WHERE THE GARDEN OF EDEN WAS SITUATED.
If I would Eden's latitude define,
'Tis in the parellel in which you shine : You are the blooming tree of life, and I The happy mortal, who would taste and die.
ON TWO SPITEFUL BROTHERS.
With sobbing voice, upon his death-bed sick,
Thus to his brother spake exspiring Dick,
"Tho' during-all my life-in poverty,—
Thou never, Neddy, shew'dst regard for me—
I hope thou wilt-take care-when I am dead-
To see me buried.' That I will,' quoth Ned,
We'll lay thee deep enough, Dick, never fear.
Thou shalt no longer be a nuisance here.
I'll write thy epitaph, Here lies a knave.*
|