EPITAPH ON SAMUEL ROSE, ESQ

Whose deeds constrain us to detest

The day that gave them birth !!

Not so when Stella's natal morn

Revolving months restore,
We can rejoice that she was born,
And wish her born once more !!

EPITAPH

On the Death of SAMUEL ROSE, Esq.

A PARTICULAR FRIEND OF COWPER.

247

ESTEEM'D, admir'd, and lost in manhood's prime :
But who may question God's appointed time?
Rash grief, profane not Rose's hallow'd tomb,
Though Heaven its gifts of earthly hope resume!
Learning, and wit, and eloquence, and truth,
The patient thought of age, the zeal of youth,
To man these bright endowments seem'd to claim
A long and rich career of legal fame.
But angels often from their sire impart

His early summons to the pure in heart.

Friendship must weep, though Faith. with blameless pride

Tells, how the christian triumph'd as he died.
Earth's dearest blessings round his heart entwin'd,
To God, who gave them all, he all resign'd.

THE COLUBRIAD.

[The occasion on which these lines were written is related by Cowper as follows, in a letter to the Rev. William Unwin in 1782.- Passing from the

green house to the barn, I saw three kittens looking with a fixt attention on something which lay on the threshold of a door nailed up. I took but little notice of them at first; but a loud hiss engaged me to attend more closely, when behold-a viper! the largest I remember to have seen, rearing itself, darting its forked tongue, and ejaculating the aforesaid hiss at the nose of a kitten, almost in contact with his lips. I ran into the hall for a hoe with a long handle, with which I intended to assail him, and returning in a few seconds missed him. He was gone, and I feared had escaped me. Still however the kitten sat watching immoveably upon the same spot. I concluded therefore, that, sliding between the door and the threshold, he had found his way out of the garden into the yard. I went round immediately, and there found him in close conversation with the old cat, whose curiosity, being excited by so novel an appearance, inclined her to pat his head repeatedly with her fore-foot, with her claws however sheathed, and not in anger, but in the way of philosophic inquiry and examination. To prevent her falling a victim to so laudable an exercise of her talents, I interposed in a moment with the hoe, and performed upon him an act of decapitation, which, though not immediately mor. tal, proved so in the end. Had he slid into the passages, where it is dark, or had he when in the yard met with no interruption from the cat, and secreted himself in any of the out-houses, it is hardly possible but that some of the family must have been bitten. He might have been trodden upon without being perceived, and have slipped away before the fufferer could have distinguished what foe had wounded him. Three years ago we discovered one in the same place, which the barber slew with a trowel."]

CLOSE by the

threshold of a door, nail'd fast,

Three kittens sat.

Each kitten look'd aghast.

I, passing swift and inattentive by,

At the three kittens cast a careless eye;

Not much concern'd to know what they did there,
Not deeming kittens worth a poet's care.
But presently a loud and furious hiss

Caus'd me to stop, and to exclaim-“ What's this?”
When, lo! upon the threshold met my view,
With head erect and eyes of fiery hue,

A viper, long as Count de Grasse's queue.

}

Forth from his head his forked tongue he throws,
Darting it full against a kitten's nose;

Who, having never seen in field or house

The like, sat still and silent, as a mouse.
Only, projecting with attention due

Her whisker'd face, she ask'd him-"Who are you?”
On to the hall went I with pace not slow,
But swift as lightning, fora long Dutch hoe;
With which, well arm'd, I hasten'd to the spot,
To find the viper. But I found him not;
And, turning up the leaves and shrubs around,
Found only, that he was not to be found,
But still the kittens, sitting as before,
Sat, watching close the bottom of the door.
"I hope (said I) the villain I would kill
Has slipt between the door and the door's sill;
And if I make dispatch, and follow hard,

"

No doubt, but I shall find him in the yard.' For long ere now it should have been rehears❜d, 'Twas in the garden that I found him first.

grown cat

E'en there I found him. There the full
His head with velvet paw did gently pat,
As curious as the kittens erst had been
To learn what this phenomenon might mean.
Fill'd with heroic ardour at the sight,
And fearing every moment he would bite,
And rob our household of our only cat,

That was of age, to combat with a rat,
With out-stretch'd hoe I slew him at the door,
And taught him never to come there no more.

TWO INSCRIPTIONS.

These

[The following were written by Cowper at the re quest of Thomas Gifford, Esq. who sowed twenty acres with acorns on each side of his house. memorials he erected on the occasion, that, when posterity shall be curious to know the age of the oaks, their curiosity may be gratified. Mr. Gifford ordered his lapidary to cut the characters very deep and in stone extremely hard.]

FIRST INSCRIPTION.

OTHER stones the era tell
When some feeble mortal fell.

I stand here to date the birth