 | The poetical works (1829) |  |
LINES
WRITTEN UPON THE DEATH OF THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE.
'Tis not the public loss which hath imprestThis general grief upon the multitude,
And made its way at once to every breast,
The young, the old, the gentle, and the rude;
'Tis not that in the hour which might have crown'd
The prayers preferr'd by every honest tongue;
The very hour which should have sent around
Tidings wherewith all steeples would have rung,
And all our cities blazed with festal fire,
And all our echoing streets have peal'd with gladness;
That then we saw the high-raised hope expire,
And England's expectation quench'd in sadness.
It is to think of what thou wert so late,
O thou who now liest cold upon thy bier!
So young, and so beloved: so richly blest
Beyond the common lot of royalty;
The object of thy worthy choice possest;
And in thy prime, and in thy wedded bliss,
And in the genial bed,—the cradle drest,
Hope standing by, and Joy, a bidden guest!
'Tis this that from the heart of private life
Makes unsophisticated sorrow flow:
We mourn thee as a daughter and a wife,
And in our human nature feel the blow.
| The poetical works (1829) | |