 | Poems on several occasions |  |
TO MR. FORESTER, ON HIS MARRIAGE.
Some think that nuptial bliss can never stay,
A nine-days' wonder or a week of play;
While others fix its end not quite so soon,
But grant a lunar year—a honey-moon;
And most conclude its happiness is done
Before one annual journey of the sun.
Nay, every modish gentleman will swear
A perfect miracle it must appear,
To last a legal life-time—seven year!
Yet wisdom oft these narrow bounds has pass'd,
And made the transport long as nature last.
In your own hands your quiet chiefly lies,
And neighbouring forty warns you to be wise.
A nine-days' wonder or a week of play;
While others fix its end not quite so soon,
But grant a lunar year—a honey-moon;
And most conclude its happiness is done
Before one annual journey of the sun.
Nay, every modish gentleman will swear
A perfect miracle it must appear,
To last a legal life-time—seven year!
Yet wisdom oft these narrow bounds has pass'd,
And made the transport long as nature last.
In your own hands your quiet chiefly lies,
And neighbouring forty warns you to be wise.
I grant, the thoughtless vulgar still suppose
Passion and reason always must be foes.
They throw off one, to make the other stay:
And where's the wonder travellers should stray
Who shut their eyes that they may hit their way?
The date of vulgar loves is hard to find,
Or tell how long a coxcomb will be blind.
Tell me how long a fever's heat will glow,
Or winds inconstant in a corner blow,
Or jilts and statesmen keep their solemn vow,
Or losing gamesters ply their desperate trade,
Or maids continue maids at masquerade.
Passion and reason always must be foes.
They throw off one, to make the other stay:
And where's the wonder travellers should stray
Who shut their eyes that they may hit their way?
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Or tell how long a coxcomb will be blind.
Tell me how long a fever's heat will glow,
Or winds inconstant in a corner blow,
Or jilts and statesmen keep their solemn vow,
Or losing gamesters ply their desperate trade,
Or maids continue maids at masquerade.
Mankind below is destined to sustain
Labour and grief and weariness and pain.
To' avoid this lot, in vain a mortal strives:
It is not in our loves, but in our lives.
Lives there on earth who will not own 'tis so?
Yet few remember that which all men know.
The wise with patience greatest ills endure,
Which love may lighten, but can never cure;
And e'en for trifling crosses are prepared;
The fort, where weakest, needs the strongest guard.
So, when a dame, in men and manners skill'd,
Lives with a darling, but a wedded, child;
Reason, not instinct, all her actions guides;
Against her offspring still the mother sides.
Experienced age has taught her long to know,
To seem impartial is to seem not so;
Else household-jar the true-love's knot unties;
And life may linger, but affection dies.
Labour and grief and weariness and pain.
To' avoid this lot, in vain a mortal strives:
It is not in our loves, but in our lives.
Lives there on earth who will not own 'tis so?
Yet few remember that which all men know.
The wise with patience greatest ills endure,
Which love may lighten, but can never cure;
And e'en for trifling crosses are prepared;
The fort, where weakest, needs the strongest guard.
So, when a dame, in men and manners skill'd,
Lives with a darling, but a wedded, child;
Reason, not instinct, all her actions guides;
Against her offspring still the mother sides.
Experienced age has taught her long to know,
To seem impartial is to seem not so;
Else household-jar the true-love's knot unties;
And life may linger, but affection dies.
True happiness no more consists in shows,
Than breeding can be found in gaudy clothes.
In spite of forms, your comfort will arise
From your own judgment, not another's eyes.
Far, far from view both grief and joy remove,
And ask no witness to dispute or love.
Those who to praise their consorts never fail,
Almost suspicious seem as those that rail.
Grant they speak truth, 'tis foolishness at least
To try to' express what ne'er can be express'd.
But if they lie, the boast but ill is borne;
In some moves pity, and in others scorn.
So have I known a matron who has reign'd
Over her husband with supreme command;
And yet, behind his back, at every word,
Has gravely styled him “governor and lord.”
Nay, to that height at last arrived she was,
She dared to call him “master” to his face.
Than breeding can be found in gaudy clothes.
In spite of forms, your comfort will arise
From your own judgment, not another's eyes.
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And ask no witness to dispute or love.
Those who to praise their consorts never fail,
Almost suspicious seem as those that rail.
Grant they speak truth, 'tis foolishness at least
To try to' express what ne'er can be express'd.
But if they lie, the boast but ill is borne;
In some moves pity, and in others scorn.
So have I known a matron who has reign'd
Over her husband with supreme command;
And yet, behind his back, at every word,
Has gravely styled him “governor and lord.”
Nay, to that height at last arrived she was,
She dared to call him “master” to his face.
You'll scarce accept these verses from a friend,
Except I wish you joy before I end.
May all the children Providence shall give,
Or die in childhood, or in virtue live.
Long may your loves in even temper hold,
Free from youth's fever and from age's cold.
Dearer than all things to each other grow,
Except your heaven above and faith below.
May timely death your happiness improve,
The sole divorcer of well-grounded love.
Except I wish you joy before I end.
May all the children Providence shall give,
Or die in childhood, or in virtue live.
Long may your loves in even temper hold,
Free from youth's fever and from age's cold.
Dearer than all things to each other grow,
Except your heaven above and faith below.
May timely death your happiness improve,
The sole divorcer of well-grounded love.
| Poems on several occasions | |