Poems on Several Occasions By The Reverend John Langhorne |
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MONODY
ON THE
Death of the Author's Mother.
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 | Poems on Several Occasions |  |
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MONODY ON THE Death of the Author's Mother.
1.
The flat Wave slept;The spent Breeze loiter'd on the Osier-Spray,
When young Menalcas took his pensive Way,
And near his native Eden wept.
2.
Ye Groves! he cried, ye poplar Shades:That in these Parent-Vallies play,
Ye Bowers where Fancy met the tuneful Maids:
Ye Mountains vocal with my doric Lay!
Ah! teach your Echoes to complain
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3.
For her I mourn,Now the cold Tenant of the silent Urn;
For Her bewail these Strains of Woe,
For Her these filial Sorrows flow,
Source of my Life, that led my tender Years,
With all a Parent's pious Fears;
That nurs'd my Infant-thought, and taught my Mind to grow.
4.
Careful, She mark'd each dang'rous WayWhere Youth's unwary footsteps stray;
She taught the struggling Passions to subside;
Where sacred Truth, and Reason guide,
In Virtue's glorious Path to seek the Realms of day.
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5.
Lamented Goodness! yet I seeThe fond Affections melting in her Eye:
She bends it's tearful Orb on me;
And, hark! She heaves the tender Sigh;
As thoughtful She the Toils surveys
That crowd in Life's perplexing Maze,
And for Her Children feels again,
All, all that Love can fear, and all that Fear can feign.
6.
O best of Parents! let me pourMy Sorrows o'er thy silent Bed;
There early strew the vernal Flow'r,
The parting tear at Evening Shed:
Alas! are these the only Meed
Of each kind Thought, each virtuous Deed?
These fruitless Offerings that embalm the dead.
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7.
Hope, paint no more thy Prospects fair,No more thy golden Visions spread:
Thy splendid Scenes dissolv'd in Air;
Thy fairy Prospects fled.
With Her they fled, on whose lamented Bier
Young Gratitude dropt many a Tear,
Nor longer hop'd her Pains t' asswage,
Or chear the Languors of declining Age.
| Poems on Several Occasions | |