 | Works (1916) |  |
XVI. A POET TO HIS GRANDCHILD.
SEQUEL TO “A PLEA FOR AUTHORS.”
“Son of my buried Son, while thus thy hand
Is clasping mine, it saddens me to think
How Want may press thee down, and with thee sink
Thy Children left unfit, through vain demand
Of culture, even to feel or understand
My simplest Lay that to their memory
May cling;—hard fate! which haply need not be
Did Justice mould the Statutes of the Land.
A Book time-cherished and an honoured name
Are high rewards; but bound they Nature's claim
Or Reason's? No—hopes spun in timid line
Is clasping mine, it saddens me to think
How Want may press thee down, and with thee sink
Thy Children left unfit, through vain demand
Of culture, even to feel or understand
My simplest Lay that to their memory
May cling;—hard fate! which haply need not be
Did Justice mould the Statutes of the Land.
A Book time-cherished and an honoured name
Are high rewards; but bound they Nature's claim
Or Reason's? No—hopes spun in timid line
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Extend through unambitious years to come,
My careless Little-one, for thee and thine!”
May 23, 1838.
| Works (1916) | |