EPITAPH ON MRS CLARKE.* Lo! where this silent marble weeps, She felt the wound she left behind. Her infant Image here below Sits smiling on a father's wo: Whom what awaits, while yet he strays Till Time shall every grief remove, With life, with memory, and with love EPITAPH ON SIR WILLIAM PEERE WILLIAMS, Here, foremost in the dangerous paths of fame, Young Williams fought for England's fair renown; His mind each Muse, each Grace adorn'd his frame, Nor Envy dared to view him with a frown. At Aix, his voluntary sword he drew:t There first in blood his infant honour seal'd; From fortune, pleasure, science, love, he flew, And scorn'd repose when Britain took the field. * The wife of Dr Clarke, physician at Epsom, died April 27, 1757, and is buried in the church of Beckenham, Kent. + In the expedition to Aix, he was on board the Magnanime, with Lord Howe; and was deputed to receive the capitulation. With eyes of flame, and cool undaunted breast, STANZAS TO MR BENTLEY.* A FRAGMENT. In silent gaze the tuneful choir among, Half pleased, half blushing, let the Muse admire, The tardy rhymes that used to linger on, To censure cold, and negligent of fame, In swifter measures animated run, And catch a lustre from his genuine flame. But not to one in this benighted age That burns in Shakspere's or in Milton's page— As when conspiring in the diamond's blaze, The meaner gems, that singly charm the sight, And dazzle with a luxury of light. * Mr Bentley had made a set of designs for Mr Gray's poems. Enough for me, if to some feeling breast SONG.t Thyrsis, when he left me, swore Prove not always winter past. AMATORY LINES.T With Beauty, with Pleasure surrounded, to languish~~ * The words in italic were supplied by Mr Mason. + Written, at the request of Miss Speed, to an old air of Geminiani: the idea is from the French. This jeu d'esprit was found among the MSS. of Gray, and printed in a note in the second volume of Warton's edition of Pope. TOPHET.* AN EPIGRAM. Thus Tophet look'd; so grinn'd the brawling fiend, Hosannas rung through hell's tremendous borders, IMPROMPTU, Suggested by a View, in 1766, of the Seat and Ruins of a Old, and abandon'd by each venal friend, On this congenial spot he fix'd his choice: Earl Goodwin trembled for his neighbouring sand; Here sea-gulls scream, and cormorants rejoice, And mariners, though shipwreck'd, dread to land. Here reign the blustering North and blighting East, No tree is heard to whisper, bird to sing; Yet nature could not furnish out the feast, Art he invokes new horrors still to bring. * Mr Etough, of Cambridge University, the person satirised, was as remarkable for the eccentricities of his character, as for his personal appearance. A Mr Tyson, of Benet College, made an etching of his head, and presented it to Mr Gray, who attached to it the above lines. Some information respecting Mr Etough (who was rector of Therfield, Herts, and of Colmworth, Bedfordshire), may be found in the "Gentleman's Magazine," Vol. lvi., pp. 25, 281. † Henry Fox, first Lord Holland. Here mouldering fanes and battlements arise, "Ah!" said the sighing peer, "had B―te been true,* Purged by the sword, and purified by fire, Then had we seen proud London's hated walls: Owls would have hooted in St Peter's choir, And foxes stunk and litter'd in St Paul's.” *Lord Bute. The other names are probably those of Murray, Rigby, and Bedford. |