Philosophers are famed for pride; But, pray, be modest--when I died, No "sighs disturbed old ocean"s bed,"
No "Nature wept" for Franklin dead!
That day, on which I left the coast, A beggar-man was also lost: If "Nature wept," you must agree She wept for him--as well as me.
There"s reason even in telling lies-- In such profusion of her "sighs,"
She was too sparing of a tear-- In Carolina, all was clear:
And, if there fell some snow and sleet, Why must it be my winding sheet?
Snows oft have cloathed the April plain, Have melted, and will melt again.
Poets, I pray you, say no more, Or say what Nature said before; That reason should your pens direct, Or else you pay me no respect.
Let reason be your constant rule, And Nature, trust me, is no fool-- When to the dust great men she brings, Make her do--some uncommon things."
[32] Published in the _Daily Advertiser_, May 24, 1790, with the t.i.tle "Verses from the Other World, by Dr. Fr--k--n." Text from the 1809 edition.
CONSTANTIA[33]
[On a Project of Retiring to Bethlehem]
Sick of the world, in prime of days Constantia took a serious fit-- Resolved to shun all b.a.l.l.s and plays And only read what saints had writ-- To Convent Hall she would repair And be a pensive sister there.
"What are they all--this glare of things, These insects that around me shine; These beaux and belles on silken wings-- Indeed their pleasures make not mine-- My happiness is all delayed-- I"ll go, and find it in the shade."
A sailor, loitering from his crew, As chance would have it, pa.s.sed along-- She told him what she had in view, And he replied--"Fair maid you"re wrong, "Let faded nymphs to cloisters go, "Where kisses freeze and love is snow.
"The druids" oak and hermits" pine "Afford a gloomy, sad delight; "But why that blush of health resign, "The mingled tint of red and white?
"In moistening cells the flowers expire "That, on the plain, all eyes admire.
"With such a pensive, pious train "Who, but a hermit, could agree-- "Ah, rather stay to grace the plain, "Or wander on the wave with me: "For you the painted barque shall wait "And I would die for such a freight."
"No wandering stranger (she replied) "Can tempt me to forego my plan; "No barque that wafts him o"er the tide, "Nor many a better looking man: "Go, wanderer, plough your gloomy sea, "Constantia must a sister be.
"To gain so fair a flower as you, "(The Tar returned) who would not plead?
"Nor shall you, nymph, to convents go "While love can write what you must read: "Come, to yon" meadow let us stray, "I have some handsome things to say."
"Love has its wish when reason fails-- "In vain he sighed, in vain he strove: "Forsake (said she) those swelling sails "If you would have me--think of love: "Great merit has your sailing art, "But absence would distract my heart."
What else was said, we secret keep;-- The Tar, grown fonder of the sh.o.r.e, Neglects his prospects on the deep, And she of convents talks no more:-- He slyly quits the coasting trade She pities her--who seeks the shade.
[33] Printed in the _Daily Advertiser_, May 1, 1790. It was republished both in the _Freeman"s Journal_ and in the _National Gazette_. Text from the 1809 edition.
STANZAS
Occasioned by Lord Bellamont"s, Lady Hay"s, and Other Skeletons, being dug up in Fort George (N. Y.), 1790.[34]
To sleep in peace when life is fled, Where shall our mouldering bones be laid-- What care can shun--(I ask with tears) The shovels of succeeding years!
Some have maintained, when life is gone, This frame no longer is our own: Hence doctors to our tombs repair, And seize death"s slumbering victims there.
Alas! what griefs must Man endure!
Not even in forts he rests secure:-- Time dims the splendours of a crown, And brings the loftiest rampart down.
The breath, once gone, no art recalls!
Away we haste to vaulted walls: Some future whim inverts the plain, And stars behold our bones again.
Those teeth, dear girls--so much your care-- (With which no ivory can compare) Like these (that once were lady Hay"s) May serve the belles of future days.
Then take advice from yonder scull; And, when the flames of life grow dull, Leave not a tooth in either jaw, Since dentists steal--and fear no law.
He, that would court a sound repose, To barren hills and deserts goes: Where busy hands admit no sun, Where he may doze, "till all is done.
Yet there, even there tho" slyly laid, "Tis folly to defy the spade: Posterity invades the hill, And plants our relics where she will.
But O! forbear the rising sigh!
All care is past with them that die: Jove gave, when they to fate resigned, An opiate of the strongest kind:
Death is a sleep, that has no dreams: In which all time a moment seems-- And skeletons perceive no pain Till Nature bids them wake again.
[34] Published in the _Daily Advertiser_, June 17, 1790. The bodies were removed at the time the demolition of Fort George was in progress. Text from the 1809 edition.
THE ORATOR OF THE WOODS[35]
Each traveller asks, with fond surprize, Why Thyrsis wastes the fleeting year Where gloomy forests round him rise, And only rustics come to hear-- His taste is odd (they seem to say) Such talents in so poor a way!
To those that courts and t.i.tles please How dismal is his lot; Beyond the hills, beneath some trees, To live--and be forgot-- In dull retreats, where Nature binds Her ma.s.s of clay to vulgar minds.
While you lament his barren trade, Tell me--in yonder vale Why grows that flower beneath the shade, So feeble and so pale!-- Why was she not in sun-shine placed To blush and please your men of taste?
In lonely wilds, those flowers so fair No curious step allure; And chance, not choice, has placed them there, (Still charming, tho" obscure) Where, heedless of such sweets so nigh, The lazy hind goes loitering by.
[35] Published in the _Daily Advertiser_, June 29, 1790, with the explanation: "Occasioned by hearing a very elegant Discourse preached in a mean Building, by the Parson of an obscure Parrish." Text from the 1809 edition.