*

Why starts he thus in gesture wild? Alas! he mourns his darling child! His child, his second self, is gone! And all his life's best hopes are flown! Pity with me his sorrows deep, And kindly deign once more to weepFor see! where now in lonely dale, He wounded sighs, and tells his tale! "Child of my heart! (alas! no words can tell "The grief which rends my soul, to say) farewell! "Farewell? O Heav'ns! what gone? for ever fled? "And is my darling shrouded with the dead? "Her voice, her step, her face, her look, in vain "I long to listen to, or see again!

"All the fair bloom, the charms, which Nature 66 gave

"With lavish hand, are buried in the grave? "The voice which stole like music o'er my ear, "The step which brought my chearful herald near, "The face which beam'd with innocence divine, "And look which told me she was more than mine, "The quick and just conceptions of her mind, "Earnest of various worth and taste refin'd;

66

(Delighted with a mimic hand to trace "Each fancied form or blooming flow'rets grace, "The while she warbled with sweet artless glee "The "Red,Red Rose," or "Willow, Willow Tree,") "All, all are gone! and life to me now seems "A weary waste o'ercast with idle dreams! "Oh! with what doating fondness have I prest "The dear, pale suff'rer to my aching breast! "Or with what rapture gaz'd, whene'er my child, "Gay with returning health, exulting smil'd! "Not all the wealth of Princes could bestow "One moment's transports such as those to know. * See note, p. 136.

"Now, all my fears confirm'd, my hopes deceiv'd, Reft of my child, I am indeed bereav'd!

66

"Pain, sickness, poverty extreme, were bliss, "To me, compar'd with such a loss as this! "O selfish man! 'tis not myself that bears "This deep affliction-she who more than shares "In all my growing pains or pleasures, wild, "In mute distraction, mourns with me her child. "Alike by day and night with grief opprest, "The sad affliction loads her lab'ring breast, "E'en the kind hours which Nature form'd for sleep,

66

"Forbid her rest, and summon her to weep; "E'en in her happiest moments, when she seems "To clasp her dearest Lydia in her dreams, "She wakes to give a keener anguish birth, "For lo! her Lydia slumbers in the earth! "Oh! had it pleas'd indulgent Heav'n to spare "Our child in health, quick as she was to share "With us our joys or sorrows, with delight "We'd toil'd from earliest morn to latest night: "Or that denied, we'd begg'd from door to door "Our daily bread with her, nor wish'd for more! "Scoth'd by her dear attentions, all the hours "Of life had pass'd as o'er a path of flow'rs: "True, the inclement blast, the freezing air,

66

Blowing on limbs like her's expos'd and bare, "Had pierc'd us to the heart, and Charity denied, "Had oft a sigh, and silent tear supplied. "Yet He who clothes the flow'rs, the ravens feeds, "Had giv❜n to nature all that nature needs. "More beauteous when array'd in Health's full glow,

66

"Than all the pride which purple can bestow ! "Thrice blest, allow'd e'en destitute to prove "Such sweets of Sensibility and Love!

"O fatal hour! that summon'd us to part,.
"Never shall Time efface it from my heart,
"For then I first beheld with fearful eye,
“The awful, happy thing it is to die!
"Happy to babes like mine, whose * spirits soar
"To blissful realms, to live for evermore!
"I mark'd the languid pulse, the plaintive tone,
"The patient murmurs, and the gentle moan,
"I mark'd the dawning smile which clos'd her
"breath,

"To me it seem'd soft slumber-lo! 'twas death!
"Oh! may my latter end resemble thine!

"And I, like thee, dear child! my soul resign!"
Thus doth he vent his stifled grief,
And e'en in Sorrow seeks relief;
For oft as musing thus he weeps,
He bends his steps to where she sleeps,
There wrapt in meditation sweet,
To his own breast he will repeat
His lost child's virtues, and rehearse

Her fancied epitaph, in verse:

"Reader! beneath this bank of silent earth,

"There rests a child of more than common worth,
"Mild, modest, playful, innocent, and warm
"With every gentle sympathy and charm!
"But as a flow'r in op'ning beauty gay,

"Chill'd by a blight, soon droops and fades away,
"So she, while yet in Life's first tender bloom,
Untimely fell, and met an early tomb!

66

"Here sleeps her dust, the virtues of her mind "Survive, and leave a fragrance sweet behind :

* See Matt. xviii. 10. which may be thus rendered-" Despise not one of these little ones" (speaking of children) " for I say unto you, that the Angels of such do behold for evermore the face of Father which is in Heaven."

my
(M. R. Feb. 1805)—See also Matt. xix. 14.

*Her soul ascends a spirit pure to heaven,
"The Lord hath taken, what the Lord had giv'n !
"Reader! excuse the verse, nor disapprove
"The lengthen'd murmurs of a Parent's love;
"Think of my child, and kindly mourn with me,
"For had her hapless fate Thine chanc'd to be,
"Her little heart would now have throb'd for
"Thee."

But ah! too tedious is the Muse
He feels, in vain would she diffuse
In numbers, half her sighs would say ;
Lo! the gay traveller turns away;
Condemns the Parent's silly pride,
And passes on the other side.
Rather the pensive mind affords
A tablet wrought with fewer words;
Desirous but of simplest grace

To mark with truth the sacred place:

"With aching heart, and trembling hand, I write,
"Dear child! the day which bore thee from our
"sight.

"But if, in tears, I trace the sad record,
"YetFaith, with Hope,confirms God's holy word
66 And says, "Tho' lost to us, thou livest with
"the Lord."

"Ere long, perhaps, beneath this selfsame stone,
"Shall rest thy Parent's ashes with thy own;
"God's will be done, and all our sins forgiven!
"Then shall we live again,-with Thee,-dear
"Child! in Heav'n!"

6

Yet deem not, that your mourning Friend

To Consolation's balm will lend

A dull, cold ear. No! thanks to heaven
Who for a gracious boon hath giv'n

VOL. V.

*Two other darling babes, to claim
Their sister's virtues with her name;
In ev'ry bud of blooming sense,
Dear emblems of her innocence!

And now, kind Sylph, farewell, excuse
These gloomy wanderings of our Muse;
Mean though they be, I know your love
Of Truth will lead you to approve;
For surely you had never known,
As now, your friends by sight alone.
Conceal with care this secret spell;

And till we meet again, once more farewell!
JULY 8, 1805.

J. W. H.

MARY ANN AND JOHN.

BY THE SAME.

Addressed to Mrs. O, in return for a New-Year's-Gift and Verses to the Children, Jan. 1, 1806.

THERE in my garden gaily tripping,
Behold my little darlings fly!

As blithe as any lambkins skipping,

And pleas'd like them, they know not why.

You wonder whence such pleasure flows,
Or what can smiles like their's dispense?
Know 'tis the sunshine Heaven bestows
On health, and spotless innocence.

* M. A. born June 1798. J. W. born July 1799.