Then, faithful Hound! thy happy lot is cast
In pleasant places—­and thy life has pass’d
In the dear service of a Master—­whom
The world’s concurrent voice has yielded now
The meed of highest praise—­and on whose brow
Th’ imperishable wreath of fame shall bloom;
Nor is this fate less happy than the rest,
That he should paint thee, who can paint thee best!

SONNET.

TO HOPE.

How droops the wretch whom adverse fates pursue,
  While sad experience, from his aching sight
  Sweeps the fair prospects of unproved delight,
Which flattering friends and flattering fancies drew. 
When want assails his solitary shed,
  When dire distraction’s horrent eye-ball glares,
  Seen ’midst the myriad of tumultuous cares,
That shower their shafts on his devoted head. 
Then, ere despair usurp his vanquish’d heart,
  Is there a power, whose influence benign
  Can bid his head in pillow’d peace recline,
And from his breast withdraw the barbed dart? 
There is—­sweet Hope! misfortune rests on thee—­
Unswerving anchor of humanity!

LINES

WRITTEN ON THE SIXTH OF SEPTEMBER.

Ill-fated hour! oft as thy annual reign
Leads on th’ autumnal tide, my pinion’d joys
Fade with the glories of the fading year;
“Remembrance wakes, with all her busy train,”
And bids affection heave the heart-drawn sigh
O’er the cold tomb, rich with the spoils of death,
And wet with many a tributary tear!

Eight times has each successive season sway’d
The fruitful sceptre of our milder clime
Since my loved——­died! but why, ah! why
Should melancholy cloud my early years? 
Religion spurns earth’s visionary scene,
Philosophy revolts at misery’s chain: 
Just Heaven recall’d its own; the pilgrim call’d
From human woes:  from sorrow’s rankling worm—­
Shall frailty then prevail?

Oh! be it mine
To curb the sigh which bursts o’er Heaven’s decree;
To tread the path of rectitude—­that when
Life’s dying ray shall glimmer in the frame,
That latest breath I may in peace resign,
“Firm in the faith of seeing thee and God.”

SONNET.

TO CHARITY.

O! best-beloved of Heaven, on earth bestow’d,
  To raise the pilgrim sunk with ghastly fears,
  To cool his burning wounds, to wipe his tears,
And strew with amaranths his thorny road. 
Alas! how long has Superstition hurl’d
  Thine altars down, thine attributes reviled,
  The hearts of men with witchcrafts foul beguiled. 
And spread his empire o’er the vassal world? 
But truth returns! she spreads resistless day;
  And mark, the monster’s cloud-wrapt fabric falls—­
  He shrinks—­he trembles ’mid his inmost halls,
And all his damn’d illusions melt away! 
The charm dissolved—­immortal, fair, and free,
Thy holy fanes shall rise, celestial Charity!