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High in his faith and hopes, look! how he reaches
After the prize in view! and, like a bird

That's hamper'd, struggles hard to get away!
Whilst the glad gates of sight are wide expanded
To let new glories in, the first fair fruits
Of the fast-coming harvest! Then! O then!
Each earth-born joy grows vile, or disappears,
Shrunk to a thing of nought. O how he longs
To have his passport sign'd, and be dismiss'd!
'Tis done, and now he's happy! The glad soul
Has not a wish uncrown'd. Even the lag flesh
Rests too in hope of meeting once again
Its better half, never to sunder more.

Nor shall it hope in vain: the time draws on
When not a single spot of burial-earth,
Whether on land, or in the spacious sea,
But must give back its long-committed dust
Inviolate and faithfully shall these

Make up the full account; not the least atom
Embezzled, or mislaid, of the whole tale.

Each soul shall have a body ready-furnish'd;
And each shall have his own. Hence, ye profane :
Ask not how this can be. Sure the same power
That rear'd the piece at first, and took it down,
Can re-assemble the loose scatter'd parts,
And put them as they were: Almighty God
Has done much more: nor is his arm impair'd
Through length of days; and what he can he will:
His faithfulness stands bound to see it done.
When the dread trumpet sounds, the slumbering dust,
Not unattentive to the call, shall wake;

And every joint possess its proper place,

With a new elegance of form, unknown

To its first state. Nor shall the conscious soul
Mistake its partner; but amidst the crowd,
Singling its other half, into its arms

Shall rush, with all the impatience of a man
That's new come home, who having long been absent,
With haste runs over every different room,

In pain to see the whole. Thrice happy meeting!
Nor time, nor death, shall ever part them more.
'Tis but a night, a long and moonless night;
We make the grave our bed, and then are gone.
Thus, at the shut of even, the weary bird
Leaves the wide air, and in some lonely brake
Cowers down, and dozes till the dawn of day;

Then claps his well-fledg'd wings and bears away.

ON THE

DEATH OF LADY COVENTRY.

Written in 1760.

THE midnight clock has toll'd-and, hark! the bell
Of death beats slow: heard ye the note profound?
It pauses now; and now, with rising knell,
Flings to the hollow gale its sullen sound.

Yes-Coventry is dead. Attend the strain,

Daughters of Albion! ye that, light as air, So oft have tripp'd in her fantastic train,

With hearts as gay, and faces half as fair:

For she was fair beyond your brightest bloom;
(This envy owns, since now her bloom is fled;)
Fair as the forms that, wove in Fancy's loom,
Float in light vision round the poet's head.

Whene'er with soft serenity she smil'd,

Or caught the orient blush of quick surprise,
How sweetly mutable, how brightly wild,
The liquid lustre darted from her eyes!

Each look, each motion, wak'd a new-born grace, That o'er her form its transient glory cast; Some lovelier wonder soon usurp'd the place, Chas'd by a charm still lovelier than the last.

That bell again! It tells us what she is;
On what she was, no more the strain prolong:
Luxuriant fancy, pause! an hour like this
Demands the tribute of a serious song,

Maria claims it from that sable bier,

Where cold and wan the slumberer rests her head; In still small whispers to reflection's ear

She breathes the solemn dictates of the dead.

O catch the awful notes, and lift them loud!

Proclaim the theme, by sage, by fool, rever'd; Hear it, ye young, ye vain, ye great, ye proud! 'Tis Nature speaks, and Nature will be heard.

Yes; ye shall hear, and tremble as ye hear,
While high with health, your hearts exulting leap,
E'en in the midst of pleasure's mad career,
The mental monitor shall wake and weep!

For say, than Coventry's propitious star,
What brighter planet on your births arose?
Or
gave
of fortune's gifts an ampler share,
In life to lavish, or by death to lose?

Early to lose! While borne on busy wing,

Ye sip the nectar of each varying bloom;

Nor fear, while basking in the meads of spring,
The wintry storm that sweeps you to the tomb;

Think of her fate! revere the heavenly hand

That led her hence, though soon, by steps so slow; Long at her couch Death took his patient stand, And menac'd oft, and oft withheld the blow:

To give reflection time, with lenient art
Each fond delusion from her soul to steal;
Teach her from folly peaceably to part,

And wean her from a world she lov'd so well.

Say, are ye sure his mercy shall extend
To you so long a span? Alas, ye sigh!

Make then, while yet ye may, your God your friend,
And learn with equal ease to sleep or die!

Nor think the Muse, whose sober voice you hear,
Contracts with bigot frown her sullen brow;

Casts round religion's orb the mists of fear,

Or shades with horrors what with smiles should glow.

No-she would warm you with seraphic fire,
Heirs as ye are of heaven's eternal day;
Would bid you boldly to that heaven aspire,
Nor sink and slumber in your cells of clay.

Know, ye were form'd to range yon azure field,
In yon ethereal founts of bliss to lave:
Force then, secure in faith's protecting shield,

'The sting from death, the victory from the grave!

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