Observe the dappled foresters, how light Had we their wisdom, should we, often warned, Sad waste! for which no after-thrift atones : Learn then, ye living! by the mouths be taught ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1790. Ne commonentem recta sperne.-BUCHANAN. He who sits from day to day Hardly knows that he has sung. Where the watchman in his round Nightly lifts his voice on high, None, accustomed to the sound, Wakes the sooner for his cry. So your verse-man I, and clerk, Yearly in my song proclaim Duly at my time I come, Publishing to all aloud- But the monitory strain, Seems to sound too much in vain, Of such magnitude and weight, Pleasure's call attention wins, Hear it often as we may; Though committed every day. Death and Judgment, Heaven and These alone, so often heard, When some stranger is interred. ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1792. Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari!-VIRG. Happy the mortal who has traced effects THANKLESS for favours from on high, But he, not wise enough to scan His best concerns aright, To ages in a world of pain, Strange fondness of the human heart, Strange world, that costs it so much And still has power to charm. De sacris autem hæc sit una sententia, ut conserventur.-Cic. de Leg. But let us all concur in this one sentiment, that things sacred be inviolate. IMPROMPTU, ON WRITING A LETTER WITHOUT HAVING ANYTHING TO SAY, So have I seen the maids in vain They bite the lip and scratch the head, And cry, They torture it and jerk it round, Till the right end at last is found; Then wind, and wind, and wind away, And what was work is changed to play. ON THE QUEEN'S VISIT TO LONDON, THE NIGHT OF THE WHEN, long sequestered from his throne, George took his seat again, By right of worth, not blood alone, Entitled here to reign; Then Loyalty, with all her lamps New trimmed, a gallant show, Chasing the darkness and the damps, Set London in a glow. 'Twas hard to tell of streets or squares Which formed the chief display; These most resembling clustered stars, Those the long milky way. Bright shone the roofs, the domes, the spires, And rockets flew, self-driven, So, fire with water to compare, Had all the pageants of the world For no such sight had England's Queen Where George recovered made a scene, Sweet always, doubly sweet. On borrowed wheels away she flies, That night, except her own. Arrived, a night like noon she sees, Had known their sovereign come. Unlike the enigmatic line, So difficult to spell, Which shook Belshazzar at his wine The night his city fell. Soon, watery grew her eyes and dim, But with a joyful tear: None else, except in prayer for him, George ever drew from her. It was a scene in every part Like those in fable feigned, But other magic there, she knew, That cordial thought her spirits cheered, So, ancient poets say, serene With more than astronomic eyes Yet let the glories of a night Like that, once seen, suffice; Heaven grant us no such future sight, Such previous woe the price! THE COCK-FIGHTER'S GARLAND. MUSE, hide his name of whom I sing,. Lest his surviving house thou bring For his sake into scorn; Nor speak the school from which he drew The much or little that he knew, Nor place where he was born. That such a man once was, may seem Worthy of record (if the theme Perchance may credit win), For proof to man what man may prove, If grace depart, and demons move The source of guilt within. This man (for since the howling wild Could make him such; and he had worth, In social talk and ready jest Methinks I see him powdered red, The mossy rosebud not so sweet; Can such be cruel? Such can be With barbarous sports, whose fell delight 'Twixt birds to battle trained. One feathered champion he possessed, His darling far beyond the rest, Which never knew disgrace, Nor e'er had fought but he made flow The life-blood of his fiercest foe, The Cæsar of his race. It chanced at last, when on a day He doomed his favourite dead. He seized him fast, and from the pit BB 2 |