 | Female Poems On Several Occasions |  |
When I heard Sheldon had to Fate resign'd,
A sudden Consternation seiz'd my Mind,
Senseless I stood, the dangerous Surprize
Kept back the Pious Tribute of my Eyes:
And tho no words can e're my Grief express,
Yet by their own, all may judge it's Excess:
For when so good, so great a Prelate falls,
The World must Celebrate his Funerals:
And not a man in the vast Universe,
But sends a Bleeding Heart t'attend his Herse:
To tell his Vertues would whole Volumes ask,
And were a Seraph's, not a Womans task.
Over his Flock, so tenderly Austere,
He taught them both at once, to Love and Fear;
So strictly Pious, that to all that knew
His holy life, his Precepts needless grew.
Despis'd Religion did so Beauteous seem
In this blest Saint, it rais'd its first Esteem:
His head, a Receptacle did contain
More Learning than the world can boast again.
He made his Wealth and large Possessions be,
But humble Handmaids to his Charitie;
VVhich was so great, it might be truly said,
That by his Death the Poor were Orphans made:
VVhen ugly Treason flourisht highest, he
Spight of the danger, own'd his Loyalty.
VVith joy he suffer'd for the Church and State,
And bore with ease the weightiest stroaks of Fate.
Stop! stop a while! fierce Rapture choaks my words,
And no expression to my Thoughts affords:
I am all admiration! and as well
Some heavenly Vision, as his Worth might tell.
A sudden Consternation seiz'd my Mind,
Senseless I stood, the dangerous Surprize
Kept back the Pious Tribute of my Eyes:
And tho no words can e're my Grief express,
Yet by their own, all may judge it's Excess:
For when so good, so great a Prelate falls,
The World must Celebrate his Funerals:
And not a man in the vast Universe,
But sends a Bleeding Heart t'attend his Herse:
To tell his Vertues would whole Volumes ask,
And were a Seraph's, not a Womans task.
5
He taught them both at once, to Love and Fear;
So strictly Pious, that to all that knew
His holy life, his Precepts needless grew.
Despis'd Religion did so Beauteous seem
In this blest Saint, it rais'd its first Esteem:
His head, a Receptacle did contain
More Learning than the world can boast again.
He made his Wealth and large Possessions be,
But humble Handmaids to his Charitie;
VVhich was so great, it might be truly said,
That by his Death the Poor were Orphans made:
VVhen ugly Treason flourisht highest, he
Spight of the danger, own'd his Loyalty.
VVith joy he suffer'd for the Church and State,
And bore with ease the weightiest stroaks of Fate.
Stop! stop a while! fierce Rapture choaks my words,
And no expression to my Thoughts affords:
I am all admiration! and as well
Some heavenly Vision, as his Worth might tell.
| Female Poems On Several Occasions | |