Pastorals for December. SHENSTONE'S "ABSENCE.” YE shepherds so cheerful and gay, Whose flocks never carelessly roam; Should Corydon's happen to stray, O, call the poor wanderers home. Allow me to muse and to sigh, Nor talk of the change that ye find; None once was so watchful as I : I have left my dear Phillis behind. Now I know what it is to have strove With the torture of doubt and desire; What it is to admire and to love, And to leave her we love and admire. Ah! lead forth my flock in the morn, And the damps of each evening repel : Alas! I am faint and forlorn : I have bade my dear Phillis farewell. I never once dreamed of my vine; Beyond all that had pleased me before; But now they are passed, and I sigh, And I grieve that I prized them no more. But why do I languish in vain? Why wander thus pensively here? The pride of that valley, is flown; I could wander with pleasure alone. When forced the fair nymph to forego, What anguish I felt at my heart! Yet I thought, but it might not be so, "T was with pain when she saw me depart. She gazed as I slowly withdrew ; My path I could hardly discern ; So sweetly she bade me adieu, I thought that she bade me return. The pilgrim that journeys all day If he bear but a relic away, Is happy, nor heard to repine. Soft hope is the relic I bear, And my solace wherever I go. SHENSTONE'S "DISAPPOINTMENT.” YE shepherds, give ear to my lay, Yet do not my folly reprove: She was fair, and my passion begun ; She smiled, and I could not but love; She is faithless, and I am undone. That a nymph so complete would be sought It banishes wisdom the while; She is faithless, and I am undone ; Ye that witness the woes I endure, What it cannot instruct you to cure. How fair and how fickle they be. What hope of an end to my woes, When I cannot endure to forget The glance that undid my repose! The flower, and the shrub, and the tree, The sound of a murmuring stream, Henceforth shall be Corydon's theme. O, ye woods, spread your branches apace; I would hide with the beasts of the chase, Crabbe's "Parish Register." BURIALS. ARGUMENT. True Christian resignation not frequently to be seen. The Register a melancholy record. A dying man, who at length sends for a priest; for what purpose? answered. Old Collet, of the inn, an instance of Dr. Young's slowsudden death; his character and conduct. The manners and management of the Widow Goe; her successful attention to business; her decease unexpected. The infant boy of Gerard Ablett dies; reflections on his death, and the survivor, his sister-twin. The funeral of the deceased lady of the manor described; her neglected mansion; undertaker and train; the character which her monument will hereafter display. Burial of an ancient maiden; some former drawback on her virgin fame; description of her house and household; her manners, apprehensions, death. Isaac Ashford, a virtuous peasant, dies; his manly character; reluctance to enter the poor-house; and why. Misfortune and derangement of intellect in Robin Dingley; whence they proceeded; he is not restrained by misery from a wandering life; his various returns to his parish; his final return. Wife of farmer Frankford dies in prime of life; affliction in consequence of such death; melancholy view of her house, &c., on her family's return from her funeral address to Sorrow. Leah Cousins, a midwife; her character; and successful practice; at length opposed by Doctor Glibb; opposition in the parish; argument of the doctor; of Leah; her failure and decease. Burial of Roger Cuff, a sailor; his enmity to his family; how it originated; his experiment and its consequence. The Register terminates; a bell heard; inquiry for whom. The sexton. Character of old Dibble, and the five rectors whom he served. Reflections. Conclusion. CHEERFUL DEATH-BEDS UNUSUAL. THERE was, 't is said, and I believe, a time, When humble Christians died with views sublime; When all were ready for their faith to bleed, But few to write or wrangle for their creed; When lively faith upheld the sinking heart, And friends assured to meet, prepared to part; When love felt hope, when sorrow grew serene, And all was comfort, in the death-bed scene. Alas! when now the gloomy king they wait, "T is weakness yielding to resistless fate; Like wretched men upon the ocean cast, They labor hard and struggle to the last; Hope against hope,' and wildly gaze around, In search of help, that never shall be found; Nor, till the last strong billow stops the breath, Will they believe them in the jaws of death! GLOOMY RETROSPECTION. RESIGNATION UNUSUAL. When these my records I reflecting read, Where now is perfect resignation seen? Of happy peasants on their dying bed; COMMON DEATH-BED SCENES. What I behold are feverish fits of strife, "Twixt fears of dying and desire of life; Those earthly hopes, that to the last endure ; Those fears, that hopes superior fail to cure; At best, that sad submission to the doom, That, turning from the danger, lets it come. Sick lies the man, bewildered, lost, afraid, His spirits vanquished and his strength decayed; No hope the friend, the nurse, the doctor, lend Call then a priest, and fit him for his end ;' A priest is called, 't is now, alas! too late, Death enters with him, at the cottage gate; Or time allowed he goes, assured to find The self-commending, all-confiding mind; And sighs to hear what we may justly call Death's Commonplace, the train of thought in all. DEATH-BED COMMONPLACE. True, I'm a sinner,' feebly he begins. 'But trust in mercy, to forgive my sins: ' (Such cool confession no passed crimes excite! Such claim on mercy, as a sinner's right!) 'I know mankind are frail, that God is good, And none have lived as wisdom wills they should; We're sorely tempted in a world like this; All men have done, and I, like all, amiss; But now, if spared, it is my full intent To think about beginning to repent: Wrongs against me I pardon, great and small, And if I die, I die in peace with all.' His merits thus and not his sins confessed, He speaks his hopes and leaves to heaven the rest. PROPER DEATH-BED FEELINGS DESCRIBED. Ah, where that humble, self-abasing mind, With that confiding spirit shall we find ; That feels the useful pain repentance brings, Dejection's sorrows and contrition's stings; And then the hope that Heaven these griefs approve, And lastly joy that springs from pardoning love? Such have I seen in death, and much deplore So many dying—that I see no more : Lo! now my records, where I grieve to trace, How death has triumphed in so short a space; Who are the dead, how died they, I relate, THE WICKED LANDLORD. With Andrew Collet we the year begin, The blind, fat landlord of the old Crown-Inn: Big as his butt, and for the self-same use, To take in stores of strong, fermenting juice. On his huge chair beside the fire he sate, In revel chief, and umpire in debate; Each night his string of vulgar tales he told, When ale was cheap, and bachelors were bold; His heroes all were famous in their days, Cheats were his boast, and drunkards had his praise. He told, when angry wives provoked to rail, Or drive a third-day drunkard from his ale, What were his triumphs, and how great the skill That won the vexed virago to his will; Who raving came, - then talked in milder strain,Then wept, - then drank, and pledged her spouse again; Such were his themes: how knaves o'er laws prevail, Or, when made captives, how they fly from jail; The young how brave, how subtle were the old ; And oaths attested all that folly told. On death like his what name shall we bestow, So very sudden, yet so very slow? Full thirty years she ruled with matchless skill, Thus long she reigned, admired if not approved, When rose her grass in richer vales below; Then fell and died! - In haste her sons drew near, REFLECTIONS ON THE DEATH OF AN INFANT. 1 Death has his infant-train; his bony arm Strikes from the baby-cheek the rosy charm; The brightest eye his glazing film makes dim, And his cold touch sets fast the lithest limb; He seized the sickening boy, to Gerard lent, When three days' life in feeble cries were spent ; In pain brought forth, those painful hours to stay, To breathe in pain, and sigh its soul away! But why thus lent, if thus recalled again, To cause and feel, to live and die in pain?' Or rather say, Why grievous these appear, If all it pays for heaven's eternal year; If these sad sobs and piteous sighs secure Delights that live when worlds no more endure? The sister-spirit long may lodge below, And pains from nature, pains from reason, know; Through all the common ills of life may run, By hope perverted, and by love undone ; A wife's distress, a mother's pangs, may dread, A widow's tears in bitter anguish shed; May at old age arrive, through numerous harms, To bear a grandchild in those feeble arms; Nor till by years of want and grief oppressed, Shall the sad spirit flee and be at rest! Yet happier therefore shall we deem the boy, Blest is the nursling never taught to sing, THE UNUSED MANSION-HOUSE. Next died the lady who yon hall possessed; And here they brought her noble bones to rest. In town she dwelt ; forsaken stood the hall, Worms ate the floors, the tapestry fled the wall; No fire the kitchen's cheerless grate displayed; No cheerful light the long-closed sash conveyed! The crawling worm, that turns a summer-fly, Here spun his shroud, and laid him up to die The winter-death. Upon the bed of state, The bat, shrill-shrieking, wooed his bickering mate: To empty rooms the curious came no more, From empty cellars turned the angry poor, And surly beggars cursed the ever-bolted door. 1 See p. 319. THE STEWARD. To one small room the steward found his way, Where tenants follow to complain and pay; Yet no complaint before the lady came, The feeling servant spared the feeble dame ; Who saw her farms with his observing eyes, And answered all requests with his replies. She came not down her falling groves to view; Why should she know what one so faithful knew? Why come from many clamorous tongues to hear What one so just might whisper in her ear? Her oaks or acres why with care explore, Why learn the wants, the sufferings, of the poor, When one so knowing all their worth could trace, And one so piteous governed in her place? THE HEARTLESS OBSEQUIES. Lo! now, what dismal sons of darkness come, To bear this daughter of indulgence home! Tragedians all, and well arranged in black! Who nature, feeling, force, expression, lack ;— Who cause no tear, but gloomily pass by, And shake their sables in the wearied eye, That turns disgusted from the pompous scene, Proud without grandeur, with profusion mean! The tear for kindness past affection owes ; For worth deceased the sigh from reason flows; E'en well-feigned Passion for our sorrows call, And real tears for mimic miseries fall :But this poor farce has neither truth nor art, To please the fancy or to touch the heart; Unlike the darkness of the sky, that pours On the dry ground its fertilizing showers; Unlike to that which strikes the soul with dread When thunders roar and forky fires are shed; Dark but not awful, dismal but yet mean, With anxious bustle moves the cumbrous scene; Presents no objects, tender or profound, But spreads its cold, unmeaning gloom around. When woes are feigned, how ill such forms appear, And, O! how needless, when the woe 's sincere. Slow to the vault they come with heavy tread, Bending beneath the lady and her lead; A case of elm surrounds that ponderous chest, Close on that case the crimson velvet's pressed; Ungenerous this, that to the worm denies, With niggard caution, his appointed prize; For now, ere yet he works his tedious way, Through cloth, and wood, and metal, to his prey, That prey, dissolving, shall a mass remain, That Fancy loathes and worms themselves disdain. But, see! the master-mourner makes his way, To end his office, for the coffined clay; Pleased that our rustic men and maids behold His plate like silver, and his studs like gold, As they approach to spell the age, the name, And all the titles of the illustrious dame. MONUMENTAL FALSEHOODS. This as (my duty done) some scholar read, A village-father looked disdain, and said : 'Away, my friends! why take such pains to know THE PRUDISH SPINSTER. Down by the church-way walk, and where the brook Winds round the chancel, like a shepherd's crook; HER FINERY, HER PETS, ETC. Silks beyond price, so rich they'd stand alone, For woman's wonder, held her pencilled ware; Unhappy bird! who had no power to prove, EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY TREASURES. As years increased, these treasures, her delight, A guinea kept is but a guinea still: That something more this guinea may produce :- The oftener seen, the more in value rise, And thus are wisely hoarded, to bestow On pride that governs pleasure that will grow. Then we beheld her turn and anxious look That told, Alas! how hard from these to part, And for new hopes and habits form the heart!' 'What shall I do (she cried), my peace of mind To gain in dying, and to die resigned?' 'Hear,' we returned; these baubles cast aside, Nor give thy God a rival, in thy pride; Thy closets shut, and ope thy kitchen's door; There own thy failings, here invite the poor; A friend of Mammon let thy bounty make, For widows' prayers thy vanities forsake, And let the hungry of thy pride partake: Then shall thy inward eye with joy survey The angel Mercy tempering Death's delay!' Alas! 't was hard; the treasures still had charms, Hope still its flattery, sickness its alarms; Still was the same unsettled, clouded view, And the same plaintive cry, What shall I do?' Nor change appeared; for, when her race was run, Doubtful we all exclaimed, 'What has been done?' Apart she lived, and still she lies alone; Yon earthly heap awaits the flattering stone, On which invention shall be long employed To show the various worth of Catharine Lloyd. THE NOBLE PEASANT. Next to these ladies, but in naught allied, A noble peasant, Isaac Ashford, died. |