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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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A Parent's Lamentation,
 
 
 
 
 
 
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206

A Parent's Lamentation,

On the Death of An Only Promising Child.

Where art thou fled my hope, my joy,
What shade conceals my lovely boy?
Just as the dawn of life begun,
The circle of thy race was run.
So dawns Aurora fair, and gay,
'Till clouds o'ercast the opening day.
Just as thy cheeks begun to bloom,
Thy feet to totter round the room;
With infant sounds thy tongue to prattle,
Thy hands to play with toys, and rattle,
Stern death—inexorable death,
Seal'd up thy eyes, and stop'd thy breath.

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Nor didst thou know, unthinking boy!
That life itself was but a toy,
A painted dream, a gilded bubble,
Checquer'd with sorrow, care, and trouble.
Peace to thy shade, O! lovely child,
In death's cold arms how sweet he smil'd;
Lodg'd in the silent tomb he lies,
Eternal slumbers seal his eyes.
No more to murmur, cry, or crave,
Rock'd in the cradle of the grave.
O! happy child—in early age,
To quit this transitory stage:
Just in thy opening bloom to die,
And shoot, and ripen in the sky.
So tender flowers nurs'd up with care,
In colder climes, and northern air,
Transplanted with new beauty rise,
And flourish in indulgent skys.