XI. A POET'S EPITAPH. ART thou a Statist in the van A Lawyer art thou ?-draw not nigh. Art thou a Man of purple cheer? Or art thou one of gallant pride, Physician art thou? one, all eyes, Philosopher! a fingering slave, One that would peep and botanize Wrapt closely in thy sensual fleece, A Moralist perchance appears; Led, Heaven knows how! to this poor sod: One to whose smooth-rubbed soul can cling An intellectual All-in-all! Shut close the door; press down the latch; Sleep in thy intellectual crust; Nor lose ten tickings of thy watch Near this unprofitable dust. But who is He, with modest looks, He is retired as noontide dew, The outward shows of sky and earth, In common things that round us lie That broods and sleeps on his own heart. But he is weak; both Man and Boy, Hath been an idler in the land; The things which others understand. -Come hither in thy hour of strength; Come, weak as is a breaking wave! Here stretch thy body at full length ; Or build thy house upon this grave. XII. TO THE DAISY. BRIGHT Flower! whose home is everywhere, And all the long year through the heir Methinks that there abides in thee Some concord with humanity, Given to no other flower I see The forest thorough! Is it that Man is soon deprest? A thoughtless Thing! who, once unblest, Does little on his memory rest, Or on his reason, And Thou would'st teach him how to find A hope for times that are unkind And every season? Thou wander'st the wide world about, Meek, yielding to the occasion's call, Thy function apostolical In peace fulfilling. 1803. XIII. In the School of MATTHEW. is a tablet, on which are inscribed, in gilt letters, the Names of the several persons who have been Schoolmasters there since the foundation of the School, with the time at which they entered upon and quitted their office. Opposite to one of those Names the Author wrote the following lines. IF Nature, for a favourite child, Read o'er these lines; and then review In such diversity of hue Its history of two hundred years. |