ON A SIMILAR OCCASION. FOR THE YEAR 1788.* Quod adest, memento Componere æquus. Cætera fluminis Ritu feruntur. HORACE [Lib. II., Ode xxix.] Improve the present hour, for all beside Is a mere feather on a torrent's tide. OULD I, from Heaven inspired, as sure presage To whom the rising year shall prove As I can number in my punctual page, How each would trembling wait the mournful sheet, 10 Time then would seem more precious than the joys * Printed, like the preceding, by Bull, in 1801, also in the general edition of Cowper's Poems in 1803, and in all subsequent editions. Then doubtless many a trifler, on the brink Ah self-deceived! Could I, prophetic, say Observe the dappled foresters, how light Had we their wisdom, should we, often warned, 25 30 Sad waste! for which no after-thrift atones: Learn then, ye living! by the mouths be taught And the next opening grave may yawn for 35 you. 66 ON A SIMILAR OCCASION. FOR THE YEAR 1789.* -Placidâque ibi demum morte quievit. VIRG. [En. IX., 445.] There calm at length he breathed his soul away. MOST delightful hour by man The hour that terminates his span, "Worlds should not bribe me back to tread Again life's dreary waste, To see again my day o'erspread With all the gloomy past. My home henceforth is in the skies, All Heaven unfolded to my eyes, I have no sight for you." So spake Aspasio, firm possessed Then breathed his soul into its rest, 5 10 15 * Published, it is said, for the first time, in a memoir of Cowper, in the work entitled "Public Characters, 17991800," Lond. 8vo. 1799, p. 549. It was afterwards printed in 1801, 1803, and subsequent editions, as the two preceding similar poems. He was a man among the few Sincere on Virtue's side; And all his strength from Scripture drew, That rule he prized, by that he feared, Nor ever frowned, or sad appeared, But when his heart had roved. For he was frail as thou or I, And evil felt within: But when he felt it, heaved a sigh, Such lived Aspasio; and at last, "His joys be mine," each Reader cries, "When my last hour arrives:" "They shall be yours," my Verse replies, 20 25 30 35 "What," Eds. 1801 to 1806(2); "that," Ed. 1808, and subsequent editions. "Thoughts," Eds. 1801 to 1806(2); "Thought," Ed. 1808, and subsequent editions. ON A SIMILAR OCCASION. FOR THE YEAR 1790.* Ne commonentem recta sperne. BUCHANAN. [Jephthes, 1. 782.] Despise not my good counsel. E who sits from day to day Where the prisoned lark is hung, Heedless of his loudest lay, Hardly knows that he has sung. Where the watchman in his round So your Verse-man I, and Clerk, Death at hand-yourselves his mark— And the foe's unerring aim. Duly at my time I come, Publishing to all aloud Soon the grave must be your home, And your only suit, a shroud. 5 10 15 * Printed in 1801, 1803, and subsequent editions, as the first of the preceding similar lines. |