Pinks have lost their blooming red,
Mourning hang their drooping head,
Every flower languid seems,
Wants the colour of thy beams,
Beams of wondrous force and power,
Beams reviving every flower.
Come, Cadenus, bless once more,
Bless again thy native shore,
Bless again this drooping isle,
Make its weeping beauties smile,
Beauties that thine absence mourn,
Beauties wishing thy return:
Come, Cadenus, come with haste,
Come before the winter's blast;
Swifter than the lightning fly,
Or I, like Vanessa, die.
[Footnote 1: These verses, like the "Love Song in the Modern Taste" and
the preceding one, seem designed to ridicule the commonplaces of
poetry.--_W. E. B._]
ON THE DEATH OF DR. SWIFT
WRITTEN IN NOVEMBER, 1731 [1]
Occasioned by reading the following maxim in Rochefoucauld, "Dans
l'adversite de nos meilleurs amis, nous trouvons toujours quelque chose,
qui ne nous deplait pas."
This maxim was No. 99 in the edition of 1665, and was one of those
suppressed by the author in his later editions. In the edition published
by Didot Freres, 1864, it is No. 15 in the first supplement. See it
commented upon by Lord Chesterfield in a letter to his son, Sept.
Pages:
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310