A Collection of Miscellanies Consisting of Poems, Essays, Discourses & Letters, Occasionally Written. By John Norris ... The Second Edition Corrected |
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Seeing a great Person lying in State.
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 | A Collection of Miscellanies |  |
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Seeing a great Person lying in State.
I
Well now I needs must ownThat I hate Greatness more and more;
'Tis now a just Abhorrence grown
What was Antipathy before:
With other Ills I could dispence,
And acquiesce in Providence.
But let not Heaven my patience try
With this one Plague, lest I repine and dye.
II
I knew indeed beforeThat 'twas the great man's wretched fate
While with the living to endure
The vain impertinence of State.
But sure thought I, in death he'll be
From that and other troubles free.
What e're his life, he then will lye
As free, as undisturb'd, as calm as I.
III
But 'twas a gross mistake;Honour that too officious ill,
Won't even his breathless Corps forsake,
But haunts and waits about him still.
Strange persecution, when the grave
Can't the distressed Martyr save!
What Remedy can there avail
Where Death the great Catholicon does fail?
80
IV
Thanks to my Stars that IAm with so low a fortune blest,
That what e're Blessings fate deny,
I'm sure of privacy and rest.
'Tis well; thus long I am content,
And rest as in my Element.
Then Fate, if you'l appear my friend,
Force me not 'gainst my nature to ascend.
V
No, I would still be low,Or else I would Be very high,
Beyond the state which Mortals know,
A kind of Semi-deity.
So of the Regions of the air
The High'st and Lowest quiet are,
But 'tis this middle Height I fear,
For Storms and Thunder are ingender'd there.
| A Collection of Miscellanies | |