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When my charm'd eye a flood of joy express'd, And all the father kindled in my breast,

A sudden paleness seized each guiltless face,
And death, though smiling, crept o'er every grace.
Nature! be calm-heave not the' impassion'd
sigh,

Nor teach one tear to tremble in my eye.
A few unspotted moments pass'd between
Their dawn of being and their closing scene:
And sure no nobler blessing can be given,
When one short anguish is the price of heaven.

CAWTHORN.

ON THE

DEATH OF VISCOUNTESS TOWNSHEND.

WITH downcast look and pitying eye,
Unarm'd the King of Terrors stood;
He laid his sting and horrors by,
Averse to strike the fair and good :
When thus an angel urged the blow--
No more thy lifted hand suspend!
To conscious guilt a dreaded foe,

To innocence a welcome friend.
'Bright hosts of cherubs round her stand,
To her and me confess'd alone;
Each waving his celestial hand,

And pointing to the' eternal throne.'
The angel spoke-nor husband dear,
Nor children loved (a mournful train)
Could from her eye attract one tear,

Nor bend one thought to earth again.

The soul, impatient of delay,

No more could mortal fetters bind But springing to the realms of day, Leaves every human care behind. Yet, oh! an infant daughter's claim Demands from heaven thy guardian care; Protect that lovely helpless frame !

And guard that breast you form'd so fair!
A parent's loss, unknown, unwept,
Thoughtless the fatal hour she pass'd;
Or only thought her mother slept,

Nor knew how long that sleep must last.
When time the' unfolding mind displays,
May she, by thy example led,
Fly from that motley giddy maze

Which youth and guilt and folly tread.
These never knew the guiding hand
Which leads to virtue's arduous way:
Mothers now join the vagrant band,

And teach their children how to stray.

Her shall the pious task engage

(Such once was thine), with lenient aid A father's sorrows to assuage,

His love with equal love repaid.

So shall she read with ardent eye
This lesson thy last moments give,-
'They who, like thee, would fearless die,
Spotless, like thee, must learn to live.'

EARL NUGENT.

ELEGY ON CAPTAIN COOK.

SORROWING, the Nine beneath yon blasted yew
Shed the soft drops of pity's holy dew;

Mute are their tuneful tongues, extinct their fires;
Yet not in silence sleep their silver lyres;
To the bleak gale they vibrate sad and slow,
In deep accordance to a nation's woe.

Ye, who ere while for Cook's illustrious brow Pluck'd the green laurel and the oaken bough, Hung the gay garlands on the trophied oars, And poured his fame along a thousand shores, Strike the slow death-bell!-weave the sacred

verse,

And strew the cypress o'er his honour'd hearse ;'
In sad procession wander round the shrine,
And weep him mortal whom ye sung divine!
Say first, what Power inspired his dauntless
breast

With scorn of danger and inglorious rest,

To quit imperial London's gorgeous domes, Where, deck'd in thousand tints, young Pleasure

roams;

In cups of summer ice her nectar pours,

Or twines, mid wintry snows, her roseate bowers;
Where the warm Orient loads Britannia's gales
With all the incense of Sabæan vales;
Where soft Italia's silken sons prolong
The lavish cadence of the artful song;
Where Beauty moves with fascinating grace,
Calls the sweet blush to wanton o'er her face,

On each fond youth her soft artillery tries,
Aims the light smile, and rolls the frolic eyes-
What Power inspired his dauntless breast to brave
The scorch'd Equator and the' Antarctic wave?
Climes where fierce suns in cloudless ardours
shine,

And pour the dazzling deluge round the Line;
The realms of frost, where icy mountains rise
Mid the pale summer of the polar skies?—
It was Benevolence!—on coasts unknown,
The shivering natives of the frozen zone,
And the swart Indian, as he faintly strays
'Where Cancer reddens in the solar blaze,'
She bade him seek;-on each inclement shore
Plant the rich seeds of her exhaustless store;
Unite the savage hearts and hostile hands
In the firm compact of her gentle bands;
Strew her soft comforts o'er the barren plain,
Sing her sweet lays, and consecrate her fane.
While half the warring world, in senseless strife,
Dire thirst of power, and lavish waste of life,
Sent their hoarse thunders o'er the sea to roar,
And dye the distant waves in human gore,·
O fair Benevolence! thy guiding ray

With light so pure illumed the watery way,
Amazed and charm'd the sons of Ravage stood,
And by its lustre, streaming o'er the flood,
Mark'd thy mild hero's rising ships afar,

And hush'd to peace the brazen throat of War; His sacred ensigns view'd with moisten'd eye, And struck the blood-stain'd flag, and sail'd admiring by!

When high in rage the troubled deep they plough'd, Thus to thy charms War's haughty chieftains bow'd,

Lovely Benevolence !-O nymph divine!
I see thy light step print the burning Line!
Thy lucid eye the dubious pilot guides,
The faint oar struggling with the scalding tides.
On as thou lead'st the bold, the glorious prow,
Mild and more mild the sloping sunbeams glow;
Now weak and pale the lessen'd lustres play,
As round the' horizon rolls the timid day;
Barbed with the sleeted snow, the driving hail,
Rush the fierce arrows of the polar gale;
And through the dim, unvaried, lingering hours,
Wide o'er the waves incumbent Horror lours.
From the rude summit of yon frozen steep,
Contrasting glory gilds the dreary deep!
Lo!-deck'd with vermil youth and beamy grace,
Hope in her step, and gladness in her face,
Light on the icy rock, with outstretch'd hands,
The goddess of the new Columbus stands.
Round her bright head the plumy peterels * soar,
Blue as her robe that sweeps the frozen shore;
Glows her soft cheek, as vernal mornings fair,
And warm as summer suns her golden hair;
O'er the hoar waste her radiant glances stream,
And courage kindles in their magic beam.
She points the ship its mazy path, to thread
The floating fragments + of the frozen bed.
While o'er the deep, in many a dreadful form,
The giant Danger howls along the storm,

The peterel is a bird found in the frozen seas; its neck and tail are white, and its wings of a bright blue.

In the course of the last twenty-four hours we passed through several fields of broken ice; they were in general narrow, but of considerable extent. In one part the pieces of ice were so close that the ship had much difficulty to thread

them.'

VOL. IV.

HH

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