To

a FRIEND,

TOGETHER WITH

AN UNFINISHED POEM.

Thus far my scanty brain hath built the rhyme Elaborate and swelling: yet the heart

Not owns it. From thy spirit-breathing powers I ask not now, my friend! the aiding verse, Tedious to thee, and from thy anxious thought Of dissonant mood. In fancy (well I know) From business wand'ring far and local cares, Thou creepest round a dear-lov'd Sister's bed With noiseless step, and watchest the faint look, Soothing each pang with fond solicitude,

And tenderest tones medicinal of love.

I too a SISTER had, an only Sister-
She lov'd me dearly, and I doted on her !
To her I pour'd forth all my puny sorrows,
(As a sick Patient in his Nurse's arms)

And of the heart those hidden maladies

That even from Friendship's eye will shrink asham'd.
O! I have woke at midnight, and have wept,
Because SHE WAS NOT!-Cheerily, dear CHARLES!
Thou thy best friend shalt cherish many a year:
Such warm presagings feel I of high Hope.
For not uninterested the dear Maid

I've view'd-her soul affectionate yet wise,
Her polish'd wit as mild as lambent glories,
That play around a sainted infant's head.
He knows (the SPIRIT that in secret sees,
Of whose omniscient and all-spreading Love

*

Aught to implore were impotence of mind)

That my mute thoughts are sad before his throne,

Prepar'd, when he his healing ray vouchsafes,
To pour forth thanksgiving with lifted heart,

And praise Him Gracious with a BROTHER'S JOY!

December, 1794.

* I utterly recant the sentiment contained in the lines Of whose omniscient and all-spreading Love

Aught to implore were impotence of mind,

It being written in Scripture, "Ask, and it shall be given. you," and my human reason being moreover convinced of the propriety of offering petitions as well as thanksgivings to Deity.

EDMUND! thy grave with aching eye I scan,

And inly groan for Heaven's poor outcast, Man!
"Tis tempest all or gloom : in early youth
If gifted with the Ithuriel lance of Truth
We force to start amid her feign'd caress
VICE, siren-hag! in native ugliness,

A Brother's fate will haply rouse the tear:
Onward we move in heaviness and fear!

But if our fond hearts call to PLEASURE's bower

Some pigmy FOLLY in a careless hour,

The faithless guest shall stamp th' inchanted ground And mingled forms of Mis'ry rise around:

Heart-fretting FEAR, with pallid look aghast,

That courts the future woe to hide the past;
REMORSE, the poison'd arrow in his side;
And loud lewd MIRTH, to Anguish close allied:
Till FRENZY, fierce-ey'd child of moping pain,
Darts her hot lightning flash athwart the brain.

Rest, injur'd shade! Shall SLANDER squatting near
Spit her cold venom in a DEAD MAN's ear?
'Twas thine to feel the sympathetic glow

In Merit's joy, and Poverty's meek woe;
Thine all, that cheer the moment as it flies,
The zoneless CARES, and smiling COURTESIES.
Nurs'd in thy heart the firmer Virtues grew,
And in thy heart they wither'd! Such chill dew
Wan INDOLENCE on each young blossom shed;