TO THE REV.

WILLIAM CAWTHORNE UNWIN.

I.

UNWIN, I should but ill repay

The kindness of a friend,
Whose worth deserves as warm a lay

As ever friendship penn'd,

Thy name omitted in a page

That would reclaim a vicious age.

11.

An union form'd, as mine with thee,

Not rashly, or in sport,

May be as fervent in degree,

And may as rich in comfort prove,

As that of true fraternal love.

III.

The bud inserted in the rind,
The bud of peach or rose,
Adorns, though diff'ring in its kind,
The stock whereon it grows,
With flow'r as sweet, or fruit as fair,
As if produc'd by nature there.

IV.

Not rich, I render what I may
I seize thy name in haste,
And place it in this first essay,
Lest this should prove the last.

"Tis where it should be—in a plan That holds in view the good of man.

V.

The poet's lyre, to fix his fame,
Should be the poet's heart;
Affection lights a brighter flame
Than ever blaz'd by art.
No muses on these lines attend,
I sink the poet in the friend.

ON

THE DEATH

OF

MRS. THROCKMORTON'S

BUL FINCH.

YE nymphs! if e'er your eyes were red
With tears o'er hapless fav'rites shed,
O share Maria's grief!

Her fav'rite, even in his cage,

(What will not hunger's cruel rage?)

Assassin'd by a thief.

Where Rhenus strays his vines among, The egg was laid from which he sprung; And though by nature mute,

268

MRS. THROCKMORTON'S BULFINCH

Or only with a whistle blest,

Well taught, he all the sounds express'd
Of flagelet or flute.

The honours of his ebon poll

Were brighter than the sleekest mole;

His bosom of the hue

With which Aurora decks the skies,
When piping winds shall soon arise
To sweep up all the dew.

Above, below, in all the house,
Dire foe, alike to bird and mouse,
No cat had leave to dwell;
And Bully's cage supported stood,
On
props of smoothest shaven wood,
Large-built and lattic'd well.

Well lattic'd-but the grate, alas!
Not rough with wire of steel or brass,

For Bully's plumage sake,

But smooth with wands from Ouse's side,
With which, when neatly peel'd and dried,
The swains their baskets make.

Night veil'd the pole. All seem'd secure,
When, led by instinct sharp and sure,

Subsistence to provide,

A beast forth sallied on the scout,

Long-back'd, long-tail'd, with whisker'd snout,

And badger-colour'd hide.

He, ent'ring at the study door,
Its ample area 'gan explore;

And something in the wind

Conjectur'd, sniffing round and round,
Better than all the books he found,
Food, chiefly, for the mind.

Just then, by adverse fate impress'd,
A dream disturb'd poor Bully's rest;
In sleep he seem'd to view
A rat, fast clinging to the cage,
And, screaming at the sad presage,
Awoke and found it true.

For, aided both by ear and scent,
Right to his mark the monster went-
Ah, muse! forbear to speak

Minute the horrors that ensued ;

His teeth were strong, the cage was wood-
He left poor Bully's beak.

He left it but he should have ta'en ;
That beak, whence issued many a strain

Of such mellifluous tone,

Might have repaid him well, I wote,
For silencing so sweet a throat,
Fast set within his own.

Maria weeps- -The muses mourn-
So, when by Bacchanalians torn,
On Thracian Hebrus' side

The tree enchanter Orpheus fell;
His head alone remain'd to tell
The cruel death he died.

THE ROSE.

THE Rose had been wash'd, just wash'd in a shower,
Which Mary to Anna convey'd,

The plentiful moisture incumber'd the flower,
And weigh'd down its beautiful head.

The cup was all fill'd, and the leaves were all wet,
And it seem'd to a fanciful view,

Το weep for the buds it had left with regret,
On the flourishing bush where it grew.

I hastily seiz'd it, unfit as it was,

For a nosegay, so dripping and drown'd,
And swinging it rudely, too rudely, alas !
I snapp'd it, it fell to the ground.

And such, I exclaim'd, is the pitiless part
Some act by the delicate mind,
Regardless of wringing and breaking a heart
Already to sorrow resign'd.

This elegant Rose, had I shaken it less,
Might have bloom'd with its owner a while,
And the tear that is wip'd with a little address,
May be follow'd perhaps by a smile.