Such was thy glorious plan! Wisdom with generous love took part, Unite, ye kindred sons of worth; And Pelham live in you. GARRICK. ON THE DEATH OF PRINCE LEOPOLD, SON OF THE DUKE OF MECKLENBURGH SCHWERIN, LET praise the victor's act record, With human sacrifice impure; To such, when Fate has given the blow, Shall long-prescriptive right secure : This envied meed from distant lands And every friend of man shall pay. Lamented youth! I never trod The banks where rapid Oder flow'd, Whose latest sons shall weep thy doom; Nor ever hail'd thy gracious form, Whose promised worth the' unkindly storm Yet, all confess'd to Fancy's eyes, With amaranthine splendour crown'd, Though now to better worlds resign'd, Shall still to man extend thy care; WARWICK. ON SEEING A NEGRO FUNERAL. MAHALI dies! o'er yonder plain His bier is borne: the sable train No tear bedews their fixed eye: Released from slavery's chain, Beyond the billowy surge he flies, And joyful views his native skies And long-lost bowers again. On Koromantyn's palmy soil, Shall fill each glorious day; Love, fond and faithful, crown thy nights, Nor lordly pride's stern avarice there For thee the dulcet reed shall spring, The thunder, hark! 'Tis Afric's God; Now, Christian, now, in wild dismay, But soft, beneath yon tamarind shade, Now let the hero's limbs be laid; Sweet slumbers bless the brave: There shall the breezes shed perfume, Nor livid lightnings blast the bloom That decks, Mahali's grave. BRYAN EDWARDS. 1 TO HOPE. THEY err who deem thee of celestial race, Thine is no angel face, O treacherous Hope, who flatterest to beguile. Thou wert, indeed, fair spirit, born in heaven; But from the realm of bliss Thy faithless form was driven With those who plunged into the deep abyss. So still thy dazzling lineaments display The hue of heavenly birth; And mortals own thy sway, Deem'd the good angel of the sons of earth. Thou, when the traveller of the moonless night That tempts the wretched wanderer far astray. And now he lifts his voice And louder now-and now the light is gone. Thou hearest him as to the water side A wretched man he moves, And when beneath the tide, Groaning, he sinks, remembering all he loves. And when the mountainous ocean swells and raves, When the ship sinks beneath, Thou makest on the waves The mariner endure protracted death. Long buoy'd by thee, with miserable eye And thinks he can descry The distant vessel o'er the billows bound. Oh, happy, if by no vain wish possess'd, Despair had fill'd his breast, Soon had he perish'd, and the pang been past. Fool! he who trusts thee in the evil hour, Thou parasite of grief, Whose false and boasting power Can only promise, never bring relief. ANONYMOUS. TO THE RIVER TEIGN. OH Thou! the guardian of each floweret pale Foams down the dark and solitary vale; VOL. III. S |