Poems on Several Occasions With Anne Boleyn to King Henry VIII. An Epistle. By Mrs. Elizabeth Tollet. The Second Edition |
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Paraphrase on Agur's Wish.
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 | Poems on Several Occasions |  |
Paraphrase on Agur's Wish.
------ Give me neither Poverty nor Riches.
O thou whose Dictates rule this pensile Ball!
Who didst Privation into Being call!
With bounteous Grace thy Servant's Pray'r allow;
Attend, propitious, to my humble Vow:
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Of human Life may chear it's fleeting Race.
Permit, great God! my happy Mean to lye
Far from indecent Want and Penury:
Restrain my open Hands and ready Tongue,
From impious Murmurs and injurious Wrong,
Keep me remote from Riches, and their Train
Of empty Pleasures, insolent and vain:
Lest my full Soul, amid her flowing Store,
Forget at once her Maker and the Poor.
Or lest the Fire of Youth, when I rejoice
In Wealth and Grandeur, silence Virtue's Voice;
Impose on Reason by a poor Pretence,
Make Vice for Wit, and Atheism pass for Sense.
Unthinking whence that Wit and Reason flow'd,
Can Man reflect, and then forget his God?
As thy wise Bounty has dispos'd my Fate,
Above the Vulgar, and below the Great,
To future Years proportion'd Blessings grant,
Remov'd alike from Luxury and Want:
That peaceful Wishes, and Desires suppress'd
By thy eternal Laws, may rule my Breast.
So shall the Series of my future Days
Attend thy Service, and proclaims thy Praise.
AMEN.
| Poems on Several Occasions | |