A FAREWELL. ONCE more, enchanting girl, adieu! The sweet expression of that face, Yet give me, give me, ere I go, -Say, when to kindle soft delight, That hand has chanced with mine to meet, How could its thrilling touch excite A sigh so short, and yet so sweet? O say-but no, it must not be. Adieu! A long, a long adieu! -Yet still, methinks, you frown on me; Or never could I fly from you. TO THE BUTTERFLY. CHILD of the sun! pursue thy rapturous flight, Mingling with her thou lov'st in fields of light; And, where the flowers of paradise unfold, Quaff fragrant nectar from their cups of gold. There shall thy wings, rich as an evening-sky, Expand and shut with silent ecstasy! -Yet wert thou once a worm, a thing that crept On the bare earth, then wrought a tomb and slept! And such is man; soon from his cell of clay To burst a seraph in the blaze of day! WRITTEN IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.* WHOE'ER thou art, approach, and, with a sigh, How near the Scene where late his Glory shone! Still do I see (while thro' the vaults of night * After the Funeral of the Right Hon. CHARLES JAMES Fox on Friday, October 10, 1806. &c. + Venez voir le peu qui nous reste de tant de grandeur, Bossuet. Oraison funébre de Louis de Bourbon. The illustrious line, that in long order led, Of those, that loved Him living, mourned Him dead; Of those the Few, that for their Country stood Round Him who dared be singularly good; All, of all ranks, that claimed him for their own; And nothing wanting-but Himself alone! * Oh say, of Him now rests there but a name; The dumb were eloquent, the feeble strong. * Et rien enfin ne manque dans tous ces honneurs, que celui à qui on les rend.—Ibid. + Alluding particularly to his speech on moving a new writ for the borough of Tavistock, March 16, 1802. See that admirable delineation of his character by Sir James Mackintosh, which first appeared in the Bombay Courier, January 17, 1807. |