Poems on Various Subjects with some Essays in Prose, Letters to Correspondents, &c. and A Treatise on Health. By Samuel Bowden |
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 | Poems on Various Subjects |  |
87
VERSES,
Occasion'd by the uncommon, dull, rainy Season, which continu'd Half a Year after the Death of the PRINCE, Being the Time appointed for the GENERAL MOURNING.
------ et consia sidera Fati.
Virg.
Virg.
While crouds in tears, great Frederick's loss deplore,
And sable mourning spreads from shore to shore,
Tho' the mute court appear'd like Memnon's queen,
In shades of black, and robes of bombazine;
How impotent is art? how vain the show
Of pageant dress? the mockery of woe.
To mean such Mourning—for when Frederick dies,
All nature seems around to sympathize.
And sable mourning spreads from shore to shore,
Tho' the mute court appear'd like Memnon's queen,
In shades of black, and robes of bombazine;
How impotent is art? how vain the show
Of pageant dress? the mockery of woe.
To mean such Mourning—for when Frederick dies,
All nature seems around to sympathize.
88
Soon as the tidings reach'd the realms of day,
A while celestial anthems ceas'd to play.
Swift from the skys deputed heralds go
To all the tutelary powers below:
Dispatch'd with sacred orders thro' the air,
That nature's self shou'd in the Mourning share.
While some to gloomy Æolus resort,
Who curbs the struggling whirlwinds in his court;
Swift from his cell, commission'd thunders fly,
And long imprison'd tempests shake the sky.
Some seek the silent mansions of the deep,
In oozy beds where drizzly Naiads weep,
The watry nymphs in humid grottos mourn,
And pour lymphatic tears at every urn.
Creation conscious of some tragic fate,
With all her meteors mourns in solemn state.
The clouds distil, the winds in zephyrs sigh,
And robes of Mourning cloath the darken'd sky.
In Mourning stand the melancholy hills,
Majestic mutes—in Mourning roll the rills.
In swelling floods, impetuous torrents stray,
And sweep in tides of sorrow to the sea.
A while celestial anthems ceas'd to play.
Swift from the skys deputed heralds go
To all the tutelary powers below:
Dispatch'd with sacred orders thro' the air,
That nature's self shou'd in the Mourning share.
While some to gloomy Æolus resort,
Who curbs the struggling whirlwinds in his court;
Swift from his cell, commission'd thunders fly,
And long imprison'd tempests shake the sky.
Some seek the silent mansions of the deep,
In oozy beds where drizzly Naiads weep,
The watry nymphs in humid grottos mourn,
And pour lymphatic tears at every urn.
Creation conscious of some tragic fate,
With all her meteors mourns in solemn state.
The clouds distil, the winds in zephyrs sigh,
And robes of Mourning cloath the darken'd sky.
In Mourning stand the melancholy hills,
Majestic mutes—in Mourning roll the rills.
In swelling floods, impetuous torrents stray,
And sweep in tides of sorrow to the sea.
Not
Caria's queen with rich Mausolean coast,
Or Egypt's towers, cou'd greater trophys boast:
Not Rome in tears beheld such funeral pride,
When Cæsar dropt, or young Marcellus dy'd.
Or Egypt's towers, cou'd greater trophys boast:
Not Rome in tears beheld such funeral pride,
When Cæsar dropt, or young Marcellus dy'd.
89
When martial Cromwell fell, his poet drew
All nature round him in convulsions too;
“It must be so—Heaven his great soul does claim,
“In storms as loud, as his immortal fame;
“His dying groans, his last breath shook the isle,
“And trees uncut, fall for his funeral pile.
All nature round him in convulsions too;
“It must be so—Heaven his great soul does claim,
“In storms as loud, as his immortal fame;
“His dying groans, his last breath shook the isle,
“And trees uncut, fall for his funeral pile.
When
Cromwell fell, no race was left behind,
To finish the great conquests he design'd:
But brighter scenes appear, tho' Frederick dies,
Succeeding princes in his offspring rise,
With happier days to blest Britannia's skys.
To finish the great conquests he design'd:
But brighter scenes appear, tho' Frederick dies,
Succeeding princes in his offspring rise,
With happier days to blest Britannia's skys.
| Poems on Various Subjects | |