University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton

with an essay on the Rowley poems by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat and a memoir by Edward Bell

expand sectionI. 
collapse sectionII. 
  
expand section 
expand section 
  
  
  
  
  
collapse section 
 I. 
 II. 
 III. 
 IV. 
 V. 
 VI. 
 VII. 
 VIII. 
 IX. 
 X. 
 XI. 
 XII. 
 XIII. 
 XIV. 
 XV. 
 XVI. 
 XVII. 
 XVIII. 
 XIX. 
 XX. 
 XXI. 
 XXII. 
 XXIII. 
 I. 
 II. 
  
expand section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
expand section 
  
  
  
  
  
expand section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
expand section 

ELEGY ON MR. WILLIAM SMITH.

Ascend, my Muse, on sorrow's sable plume,
Let the soft number meet the swelling sigh;
With laureated chaplets deck the tomb,
The blood-stained tomb where Smith and comfort lie.

262

I loved him with a brother's ardent love,
Beyond the love which tenderest brothers bear;
Though savage kindred bosoms cannot move,
Friendship shall deck his urn and pay the tear.
Despised, an alien to thy father's breast,
Thy ready services repaid with hate;
By brother, father, sisters, all distressed,
They pushed thee on to death, they urged thy fate.
Ye callous-breasted brutes in human form,
Have you not often boldly wished him dead?
He's gone, ere yet his fire of man was warm,
O may his crying blood be on your head!