Upon The Death Of, Mr. Addison; Inscrib'd To The Earl Of Warwick
If yet, my Lord, your Sorrows find relief,
And a short Pause succeeds your weighty Grief;
With Candour this unwelcome Verse peruse,
The last kind Office of a grateful Muse:
Nor needs the grateful Muse to court thy Ear,
Which sheds for Addison a pious Tear;
And jointly sorrows, with pathetick Rage,
The greatest Genius of the greatest Age;
Whom Rival--wits with Veneration name,
And the foul Lips of Party durst not blame.
What secret Curse attends the Poet--line?
How have the Muses urg'd the Wrath divine?
Say, holy Sires, is Poetry a Crime?
Or whence these Judgments on the Sons of Rhime?
Why are the noblest Spirits snatch'd away
In their full Blaze of intellectual Day?
While Crowds of worthless Drones are left behind,
Grown white with Years, the Lumber of Mankind,
That loll, fat Canons, in some lazy Stall,
Or thoughtless sleep within a College Wall?
To its full Length they stretch the mortal Span,
Nor lose a Moment of the Age of Man;
But dully dreaming out their vital Store,
Drop ripe into their Graves, and are no more.
Scarce have our tender Sorrows ceas'd to flow
For courtly Garth, and soft--complaining Rowe;
Like Ovid witty one; in one conspire
Otway's prevailing Art, and Lucan's Fire:
Both these together drain'd our lavish Eyes;
Will not two Poets in a Year suffice?
Shall twelve short Months an Age's Woes ingross,
And Addison compleat the Nation's Loss.
Who then in manly Numbers shall record
The future, glorious Deeds of Brunswick's Sword?
Who now correct the Follies of the Age,
Or give new Lustre to the British Stage?
With Foreign Stores enrich his native Land,
Or deign to youthful Bards his willing Hand?
Great as he was, the Monarch of the Bays,
Plac'd far above the reach of mortal Praise;
In every Thought tho' Wit Divine appear,
Yet aw'd by modest dread and cautions Fear,
Seldom (too seldom!) did he put it forth,
Still most ambitious to conceal his Worth;
Stunn'd with applauding Crowds, he check'd his Flight,
And, wearied with Admirers, fear'd to write;
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poem by Nicholas Amhurst
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