[Page 18]

TO Mrs. DELAINY,

UPON THE MARKS OF ROYAL BOUNTY WHICH SHE RECEIVED AT A VERY ADVANCED AGE, AFTER THE DEATH OF HER FRIEND THE DUCHESS OF PORTLAND, IN 1786.

1 DELAINY, far from courtly art,
2 My free lyre vibrates to my heart
3 The simple notes of truth;
4 I joy to see thy virtuous age
5 With honours crown'd, a fair presage
6 For well deserving youth.
7 I joy to see desert repaid,
8 And talents cherish'd in the shade,
9 Unchill'd by evening's dew;
10 Bright glows for thee thy setting sun,
11 And ere thy mortal race is run,
12 The goal appears in view.
[Page 19]
13 Born in a fair auspicious hour,
14 To mark thy lot the ruling pow'r
15 Both wit and worth assign'd;
16 Gave thee to pass thy early days
17 With genius, whose congenial rays
18 Still animate thy mind.
19 Nor has thy guardian spirit fled,
20 But still by steps unerring led
21 To honour and repose;
22 For in fair Windsor's royal seat
23 Thy virtues find a calm retreat,
24 And wait their final close.
25 Low hung the louring clouds of fate,
26 And thy soul sicken'd with regret
27 O'er friendship's sacred tomb;
28 'Twas in that hour of aching thought
29 The cares of royal bounty sought
30 To dissipate the gloom.
31 Sweet the delight of gen'rous deeds,
32 When from the heart the wish proceeds,
[Page 20]
33 Warm, noble, and refin'd;
34 How exquisite the grateful sense
35 Of heav'n-born, pure benevolence
36 Upon the feeling mind!
37 Happy who thus have pow'r to give,
38 Who thus with honour may receive,
39 What just esteem bestows;
40 While from the starry realms above
41 The powers beneficent approve
42 The source from whence it flows.

Text

  • TEI/XML [chunk] (XML - 74K / ZIP - 8.4K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
  • Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 1.5K / ZIP - 1.0K)

Facsimile (Source Edition)

(Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [280 e.4058].)

Images

PDF

All Images (PDF - 3.3M)

About this text

Title (in Source Edition): TO Mrs. DELAINY, UPON THE MARKS OF ROYAL BOUNTY WHICH SHE RECEIVED AT A VERY ADVANCED AGE, AFTER THE DEATH OF HER FRIEND THE DUCHESS OF PORTLAND, IN 1786.
Author: Anne Hunter (née Home)
Themes:
Genres: ode; address

Text view / Document view

Source edition

Hunter, Anne Home (Mrs. John), 1742-1821. Poems, by Mrs. John Hunter. London: Printed for T. Payne, Mews Gate, by T. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, 1802, pp. 18-20.  (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [280 e.4058].)

Editorial principles

Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

Other works by Anne Hunter (née Home)