I know not by what name beside
I shall it call:-if 'twas not pride,
It was a joy to that allied,
She did inherit.

Her parents held the Quaker rule, Which doth the human feeling cool, But she was train'd in Nature's school, Nature had blest her.

A waking eye, a prying mind,
A heart that stirs, is hard to bind,
A hawk's keen sight ye cannot blind,
Ye could not Hester.

My sprightly neighbour, gone before To that unknown and silent shore, Shall we not meet, as heretofore, Some summer morning,

When from thy chearful eyes a ray
Hath struck a bliss upon the day,
A bliss that would not go away,
A sweet fore-warning?

TO CHARLES LLOYD,
An Unexpected Visitor.

ALONE, obscure, without a friend,
A cheerless, solitary thing,

Why seeks, my Lloyd, the stranger out?
What offering can the stranger bring

Of social scenes, home-bred delights,
That him in aught compensate may
For Stowey's pleasant winter nights,
For loves and friendships far away?

In brief oblivion to forego

Friends, such as thine, so justly dear,

And be awhile with me content

To stay, a kindly loiterer, here:

For this a gleam of random joy

Hath flush'd my unaccustom'd cheek ;

And, with an o'er-charg'd bursting heart, I feel the thanks I cannot speak.

Oh! sweet are all the Muses' lays, And sweet the charm of matin bird; "Twas long since these estranged ears

The sweeter voice of friend had heard.

The voice hath spoke: the pleasant sounds In memory's ear in after time

Shall live, to sometimes rouse a tear,

And sometimes prompt an honest rhyme.

For, when the transient charm is fled,
And when the little week is o'er,
To cheerless, friendless, solitude
When I return, as heretofore,

Long, long, within my aching heart
The grateful sense shall cherish'd be;
I'll think less meánly of myself,

That Lloyd will sometimes think on me.

THE THREE FRIENDS.

THREE young maids in friendship met; Mary, Martha, Margaret.

Margaret was tall and fair,

Martha shorter by a hair;

If the first excell'd in feature,

Th' other's grace and ease were greater;

Mary, though to rival loth,

In their best gifts equall'd both.
They a due proportion kept;

Martha mourn'd if Margaret wept ;
Margaret joy'd when any good
She of Martha understood;
And in sympathy for either
Mary was outdone by neither..
Thus far, for a happy space,
All three ran an even race,
A most constant friendship proving,
Equally belov'd and loving;

All their wishes, joys, the same;
Sisters only not in name.

As

Fortune upon each one smil'd,
upon a fav'rite child;

Well to do and well to see

Were the parents of all three ;
Till on Martha's father, crosses
Brought a flood of worldly losses,
And his fortunes rich and great
Chang'd at once to low estate ;
Under which o'erwhelming blow
Martha's mother was laid low;
She a hapless orphan left,
Of maternal care bereft,
Trouble following trouble fast,
Lay in a sick bed at last.

In the depth of her affliction Martha now receiv'd conviction, That a true and faithful friend Can the surest comfort lend. Night and day, with friendship tried,

Ever constant by her side

Was her gentle Mary found,

With a love that knew no bound;

And the solace she imparted

Sav'd her dying broken-hearted.