I may record thy worth with honor due, By seraphs writ with beams of heavenly light, There all thy deeds, my faithful Mary, shine, And, since thou own'st that praise, I spare thee mine. May, 1793. TO JOHN JOHNSON, ESQ., ON HIS PRESENTING ME WITH AN ANTIQUE BUST KINSMAN beloved, and as a son, by me! With some applause my bold attempt and hard, Be wiser thou-like our forefather Donne, TO A YOUNG FRIEND, ON HIS ARRIVING AT CAMBRIDGE WET WHEN NO RAIN HAD FALLEN THERE. Ir Gideon's fleece, which drench'd with dew he found While moisture none refresh'd the herbs around, With heavenly gifts to heathens not allow'd; ON A SPANIEL, CALLED BEAU, KILLING A YOUNG BIRD. A SPANIEL, Beau, that fares like you, Well fed, and at his ease, Should wiser be than to pursue Each trifle that he sees. But you have kill'd a tiny bird, Nor did you kill that you might eat For him, though chased with furious heat, Nor was he of the thievish sort, Whom you have torn for yours. My dog! what remedy remains, I see you, after all my pains, BEAU'S REPLY. SIR, when I flew to seize the bird You cried-Forbear!-but in my breast Yet, much as nature I respect, And when your linnet on a day, Had flutter'd all his strength away, Well knowing him a sacred thing, I only kiss'd his ruffled wing, And lick'd the feathers smooth. Let my obedience then excuse Nor some reproof yourself refuse From your aggrieved bow-wow : If killing birds be such a crime, TO WILLIAM HAYLEY, ESQ. DEAR architect of fine chateaux in air, O for permission from the skies to share, But I am bankrupt now; and doom'd henceforth That he has furnish'd lights for other eyes, Which they who need them use, and then despise. June 29, 1793. ANSWER To Stanzas addressed to Lady Hesketh, by Miss Catharine Fanshawe, in returning a Poem of Mr. Cowper's, lent to her, on condition she should neither show it, nor take a copy. To be remember'd thus is fame, And in the first degree; And did the few like her the same, The press might sleep for me. So Homer in the memory stored Was once preserved—a richer hoard, 1793. ON FLAXMAN'S PENELOPE. THE suitors sinn'd, but with a fair excuse, TO THE SPANISH ADMIRAL COUNT GRAVINA, On his translating the Author's Song on a Rose into My rose, Gravina, blooms anew, 1793. INSCRIPTION FOR THE TOMB OF MR. HAMILTON. PAUSE here, and think: a monitory rhyme Consult life's silent clock, thy bounding vein; Seems it to say-" Health here has long to reign ?" Hast thou the vigor of thy youth? an eye That beams delight? a heart untaught to sigh? |