Art thou a Patriot Traveller? on this fieldDid FALKLAND fall the blameless and the braveBeneath a Tyrant’s banners: dost thou boastOf loyal ardor? HAMBDEN perish’d here,The rebel HAMBDEN, at whose glorious nameThe heart of every honest EnglishmanBeats high with conscious pride. Both uncorrupt,Friends to their common country both, they fought,They died in adverse armies. Traveller!If […]

The three Utilitise of Poetry: the praise of Virtue and Goodness, the Memory of things remarkable, and to invigorate the affections. Welsh Triad. INSCRIPTION I. For a TABLET at GODSTOW NUNNERY. Here Stranger rest thee! from the neighbouring towersOf Oxford, haply thou hast forced thy barkUp this strong stream, whose broken waters hereSend pleasant murmurs […]

Come melancholy Moralizer–come!Gather with me the dark and wintry wreath;With me engarland nowThe SEPULCHRE OF TIME! Come Moralizer to the funeral song!I pour the dirge of the Departed Days,For well the funeral songBefits this solemn hour. But hark! even now the merry bells ring roundWith clamorous joy to welcome in this day,This consecrated day,To Mirth […]

What! and not one to heave the pious sigh!Not one whose sorrow-swoln and aching eyeFor social scenes, for life’s endearments fled,Shall drop a tear and dwell upon the dead!Poor wretched Outcast! I will weep for thee,And sorrow for forlorn humanity.Yes I will weep, but not that thou art comeTo the stern Sabbath of the silent […]

(taken at two years of age) And I was once like this! that glowing cheekWas mine, those pleasure-sparkling eyes, that browSmooth as the level lake, when not a breezeDies o’er the sleeping surface! twenty yearsHave wrought strange alteration! Of the friendsWho once so dearly prized this miniature,And loved it for its likeness, some are goneTo […]

Birth-day Ode, 1796. And wouldst thou seek the low abodeWhere PEACE delights to dwell?Pause Traveller on thy way of life!With many a snare and peril rifeIs that long labyrinth of road:Dark is the vale of years beforePause Traveller on thy way!Nor dare the dangerous path exploreTill old EXPERIENCE comes to lend his leading ray. Not […]

O my faithful Friend!O early chosen, ever found the same,And trusted and beloved! once more the verseLong destin’d, always obvious to thine ear,Attend indulgent. AKENSIDE. BIRTH-DAY ODE,1793. Small is the new-born plant scarce seenAmid the soft encircling green,Where yonder budding acorn rears,Just o’er the waving grass, its tender head:Slow pass along the train of years,And […]

STRANGER! the MAN OF NATURE lies not here:Enshrin’d far distant by his [1] rival’s sideHis relics rest, there by the giddy throngWith blind idolatry alike revered!Wiselier directed have thy pilgrim feetExplor’d the scenes of Ermenonville. ROUSSEAULoved these calm haunts of Solitude and Peace;Here he has heard the murmurs of the stream,And the soft rustling of […]

Stranger! awhile upon this mossy bankRecline thee. If the Sun rides high, the breeze,That loves to ripple o’er the rivulet,Will play around thy brow, and the cool soundOf running waters soothe thee. Mark how clearIt sparkles o’er the shallows, and beholdWhere o’er its surface wheels with restless speedYon glossy insect, on the sand belowHow the […]

This is the place where William’s kingly powerDid from their poor and peaceful homes expel,Unfriended, desolate, and shelterless,The habitants of all the fertile trackFar as these wilds extend. He levell’d downTheir little cottages, he bade their fieldsLie barren, so that o’er the forest wasteHe might most royally pursue his sports!If that thine heart be human, […]

This mound in some remote and dateless dayRear’d o’er a Chieftain of the Age [1] of Hills,May here detain thee Traveller! from thy roadNot idly lingering. In his narrow houseSome Warrior sleeps below: his gallant deedsHaply at many a solemn festivalThe Bard has harp’d, but perish’d is the songOf praise, as o’er these bleak and […]

For the Apartment in CHEPSTOW-CASTLE where HENRY MARTEN the Regicide wasimprisoned Thirty Years. For thirty years secluded from mankind,Here Marten linger’d. Often have these wallsEchoed his footsteps, as with even treadHe paced around his prison: not to himDid Nature’s fair varieties exist;He never saw the Sun’s delightful beams,Save when thro’ yon high bars it pour’d […]

Enter this cavern Stranger! the ascentIs long and steep and toilsome; here awhileThou mayest repose thee, from the noontide heatO’ercanopied by this arch’d rock that strikesA grateful coolness: clasping its rough armsRound the rude portal, the old ivy hangsIts dark green branches down, and the wild Bees,O’er its grey blossoms murmuring ceaseless, makeMost pleasant melody. […]

What tho’ no sculptur’d monument proclaimThy fate-yet Albert in my breast I bearInshrin’d the sad remembrance; yet thy nameWill fill my throbbing bosom. When DESPAIRThe child of murdered HOPE, fed on thy heart,Loved honored friend, I saw thee sink forlornPierced to the soul by cold Neglect’s keen dart,And Penury’s hard ills, and pitying Scorn,And the […]

Not to thee Bedford mournful is the taleOf days departed. Time in his careerArraigns not thee that the neglected yearHas past unheeded onward. To the valeOf years thou journeyest. May the future roadBe pleasant as the past! and on my friendFriendship and Love, best blessings! still attend,‘Till full of days he reach the calm abodeWhere […]

Think Valentine, as speeding on thy wayHomeward thou hastest light of heart along,If heavily creep on one little dayThe medley crew of travellers among,Think on thine absent friend: reflect that hereOn Life’s sad journey comfortless he roves,Remote from every scene his heart holds dear,From him he values, and from her he loves.And when disgusted with […]

Go Valentine and tell that lovely maidWhom Fancy still will pourtray to my sight,How her Bard lingers in this sullen shade,This dreary gloom of dull monastic night.Say that from every joy of life remoteAt evening’s closing hour he quits the throng,Listening alone the ring-dove’s plaintive noteWho pours like him her solitary song.Say that her absence […]

(Time Night. Scene the woods.) Where shall I turn me? whither shall I bendMy weary way? thus worn with toil and faintHow thro’ the thorny mazes of this woodAttain my distant dwelling? that deep cryThat rings along the forest seems to soundMy parting knell: it is the midnight howlOf hungry monsters prowling for their prey!Again! […]

(Time, Evening.) JOHN. ‘Tis a calm pleasant evening, the light fades away,And the Sun going down has done watch for the day.To my mind we live wonderous well when transported,It is but to work and we must be supported.Fill the cann, Dick! success here to Botany Bay! RICHARD. Success if you will,–but God send me […]

(Time, Noon.) HUMPHREY: See’st thou not William that the scorching SunBy this time half his daily race has run?The savage thrusts his light canoe to shoreAnd hurries homeward with his fishy store.Suppose we leave awhile this stubborn soilTo eat our dinner and to rest from toil! WILLIAM: Agreed. Yon tree whose purple gum bestowsA ready […]