Cease, cease, thou cruel ocean, The merchant, robb'd of pleasure, Should you some coast be laid on Where gold and diamonds grow, You'd find a richer maiden, But none that loves you so. How can they say that nature That lurk beneath the deep, All melancholy lying, Thus wail'd she for her dear; Repay'd each blast with sighing, Each billow with a tear; When o'er the white wave stooping, His floating corpse she spy'd; Then, like a lily drooping, She bow'd her head and dy'd. THE COURT OF DEATH. A FABLE. DEATH, on a solemn night of state, Crowd the vast court. With hollow tone, Next Gout appears with limping pace, A haggard spectre from the crew Crawls forth, and thus asserts his due: "'Tis I who taint the sweetest joy, And in the shape of love destroy: My shanks, sunk eyes, and noseless face, Prove my pretension to the place." Stone urg'd his over-growing force; By long attack, secure, though slow." Who thinn'd a nation in an hour. All spoke their claim, and hop'd the wand. Now expectation hush'd the band; When thus the monarch from the throne: BARTON BOOTH. DIED 1733. An excellent man and an eminent actor. SONG. SWEET are the charms of her I love, True as the needle to the pole, Whose swelling tides obey the moon ; From every other charmer free, The lamb the flowery thyme devours, The dam the tender kid pursues; Sweet Philomel, in shady bowers Of verdant spring her note renews; All follow what they most admire, Nature must change her beauteous face, And vary as the seasons rise; As winter to the spring gives place, Summer th' approach of autumn flies: No change on love the seasons bring, Love only knows perpetual spring. Devouring time, with stealing pace, Death only, with his cruel dart, The gentle godhead can remove; And drive him from the bleeding heart To mingle with the bless'd above, Where, known to all his kindred train, He finds a lasting rest from pain. Love, and his sister fair, the soul, Twin-born, from heav'n together came: Love will the universe control, When dying seasons lose their name; Divine abodes shall own his pow'r, When time and death shall be no more. |