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[Page 143]
LINES ON THE DEATH OF WILLIAM SOTHEBY, ESQ.
1 LEARNING and fancy were combined
2 To stimulate his manly mind;
3 Open, generous and acute,
4 Steady of purpose, in pursuit
5 Ardent and hopeful; all the while
6 In child-like ignorance of guile.
7 There are who say that envy lurks concealed
8 Where genius strives, by slightest traits revealed,
9 A truth, if truth it be, by him forgot,
10 He turned his eyes away and saw it not.
11 Success in others, frank and free,
12 He hailed with words of friendly glee.
13 Praise given to them he could not feel
14 Did aught from his own portion steal;
[Page 144]15 And when offence, designed and rude,
16 Did on his peaceful path obtrude,
17 He soon forgave the paltry pain,
18 Nor could resentment in his breast retain.
19 His was the charity of right goodwill,
20 That loves, confides, believes and thinks no ill.
21 He, by his Saviour's noble precepts led,
22 Still followed what was right with heart and head.
23 Religion did with lofty honour dwell
24 Within his bosom's sacred cell.
25 But said I learning did in him agree
26 With fancy, union rare! how could it be?
27 His eighteenth year beheld him fondly cheering
28 His warlike steed and on its back careering.
29 A gay dragoon with spur on heel,
30 And brandished blade of flashing steel;
31 With wealth at will, the world before him,
32 To go where whim or fashion bore him.
33 No friendly tutor by his side,
34 His academic course to guide.
[Page 145]35 No classic honours to invite,
36 No emulation to excite.
37 But, in default of these, his soul
38 With native fire supplied the whole;
39 And neither Hall nor College claim
40 Honour from him whose honoured name
41 Shall henceforth with the highest stand,
42 The most efficient scholars of our land.
43 To him what meed of thanks the unlearned owe!
44 And even the learned, who best his merits know.
45 With Homer, Virgil, Wieland, all converse
46 Like true compatriots in his pliant verse.
47 Pliant but elevated, graceful, bold,
48 And worthy of the Bards of old.
49 Nor will we thanklessly peruse
50 The beauties of his native muse,
51 Where lofty thoughts and feelings sweet,
52 And moral truths commingling meet.
53 Where fancy spreads her absent scene,
54 The flowery mead, the forest green;
[Page 146]55 The plains, the mountain peaks, the fanes sublime,
56 The ruins long revered of Italy's fair clime.
57 Yea thanks be his, heart-given and kind,
58 For all his pen has left behind!
59 Though bitters in his cup were mixed,
60 And in his heart sharp arrows fixed,
61 The current of his life ran clear;
62 With virtuous love and duteous children blest,
63 He journeyed onward to the Christian's rest,
64 And happy was his long career.
65 Social and joyous to the end,
66 Around him gathered many a friend,
67 Whose minds his dear remembrance hold,
68 Though seventy years and more
69 His head had silvered o'er,
70 As one who ne'er was old.
71 Rejoicing in his well-earned fame,
72 They oft repeat his honoured name,
73 And as their thoughts on all his virtues dwell
74 With sorrow, cheered and sweet, bid him a last farewell.
About this text
Author: Joanna Baillie
Themes:
death
Genres:
occasional poem; eulogy
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Baillie, Joanna, 1762-1851. Fugitive Verses. By Joanna Baillie, author of “Dramas on the Passions,“ etc. London: Edward Moxon, Dover Street. MDCCCXL., 1840, pp. 143-146. (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [40.17].)
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 Joanna Baillie
- ADDRESS TO A STEAM VESSEL. ()
- ADDRESS TO THE MUSES. ()
- THE BANISHED MAN, ON A DISTANT VIEW OF HIS COUNTRY, WHICH HE IS QUITTING FOR EVER. ()
- THE BLACK COCK, WRITTEN FOR A WELCH AIR, CALLED “THE NOTE OF THE BLACK COCK.” ()
- A CHEERFUL-TEMPERED LOVER'S FAREWELL TO HIS MISTRESS. ()
- A CHILD TO HIS SICK GRANDFATHER. ()
- DEVOTIONAL SONG FOR A NEGRO CHILD. ()
- A DISAPPOINTMENT. ()
- THE ELDEN TREE. A BALLAD. ()
- EPILOGUE TO THE THEATRICAL REPRESENTATION AT STRAWBERRY HILL, WRITTEN BY JOANNA BAILLIE AND SPOKEN BY THE HON. ANNE S. DAMER, NOVEMBER, 1800. ()
- FRAGMENT OF A POEM. ()
- FY, LET US A' TO THE WEDDING. (AN AULD SANG NEW BUSKIT.) ()
- HOOLY AND FAIRLY. (FOUNDED ON AIN OLD SCOTCH SONG.) ()
- THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. ()
- A HYMN FOR THE KIRK. ()
- HYMN FOR THE SCOTCH KIRK. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- A HYMN. ()
- JOB XIII. 15. ()
- THE KITTEN. ()
- A LAMENTATION. ()
- LINES FOR A FRIEND'S ALBUM. ()
- LINES ON THE DEATH OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. ()
- LINES TO A PARROT. ()
- LINES TO A TEAPOT. ()
- LINES TO AGNES BAILLIE ON HER BIRTHDAY. ()
- LONDON. ()
- LORD JOHN OF THE EAST, A Ballad. ()
- MALCOLM'S HEIR. A TALE OF WONDER. ()
- A MELANCHOLY LOVER'S FAREWELL TO HIS MISTRESS. ()
- THE MERRY BACHELOR, (FOUNDED ON THE OLD SCOTCH SONG OF “WILLIE WAS A WANTON WAG.”) ()
- THE MOODY SEER, A BALLAD. ()
- A MOTHER TO HER WAKING INFANT. ()
- NIGHT SCENES OF OTHER TIMES. A Poem, in Three Parts. ()
- A NURSERY LESSON (DEVOTIONAL). ()
- A POETICAL OR SOUND-HEARTED LOVER'S FAREWELL TO HIS MISTRESS. ()
- A PROUD LOVER'S FAREWELL TO HIS MISTRESS. ()
- A REVERIE. ()
- RHYMES FOR CHANTING. ()
- RHYMES. ()
- A SAILOR'S SONG ()
- SCHOOL RHYMES FOR NEGRO CHILDREN. ()
- A SCOTCH SONG. ()
- SECOND DEVOTIONAL SONG. ()
- A SECOND HYMN FOR THE KIRK. ()
- SECOND NURSERY LESSON (ADMONITORY). ()
- SELECT VERSES FROM THE 147TH PSALM. ()
- SIR MAURICE. A Ballad. ()
- SONG WRITTEN FOR THE STRAWBERRY HILL FOUNDLING PLAY, AND SUNG BY MRS. JOURDAIN. ()
- SONG, (FOR A SCOTCH AIR.) ()
- A SONG, (WRITTEN FOR MR. STRUTHER'S COLLECTION OF SONGS.) ()
- SONG, A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SCOTCH SONG. ()
- SONG, CALLED THE COUNTRY LADY'S REVEILLIE. ()
- SONG, FOR AN IRISH AIR. ()
- SONG, FOR AN IRISH MELODY. ()
- SONG, POVERTY PARTS GOOD COMPANY, ()
- SONG, WOO'D AND MARRIED AND A', ()
- SONG, WRITTEN AT MR. THOMSON'S REQUEST, AS A KIND OF INTRODUCTION TO HIS IRISH MELODIES. ()
- SONG, WRITTEN FOR A WELCH AIR, CALLED “THE NEW YEAR'S GIFT.” ()
- SONG, WRITTEN FOR A WELCH AIR, CALLED “THE PURSUIT OF LOVE.” ()
- SONG, WRITTEN FOR A WELCH MELODY. ()
- SONG, WRITTEN FOR AN IRISH AIR. ()
- A SONG, WRITTEN FOR AN IRISH MELODY. ()
- SONG. ()
- SONG. ()
- SONG. (TO THE SCOTCH AIR OF “MY NANNY O.”) ()
- ST. JOHN XXI. 1. ()
- ST. LUKE VII. 12. ()
- ST. LUKE XVIII. 16. ()
- ST. MATTHEW V. 9. ()
- A SUMMER'S DAY. ()
- THIRD DEVOTIONAL SONG. ()
- A THIRD HYMN FOR THE KIRK. ()
- THOUGHTS TAKEN FROM THE 93RD PSALM. ()
- THUNDER. ()
- TO A CHILD. ()
- TO MRS. SIDDONS. ()
- TO SOPHIA J. BAILLIE, AN INFANT. ()
- THE TRAVELLER BY NIGHT IN NOVEMBER. ()
- TWO BROTHERS. ()
- TWO SONGS. ()
- VERSES SENT TO MRS. BAILLIE ON HER BIRTHDAY, 1813. ()
- VERSES TO OUR OWN FLOWERY KIRTLED SPRING. ()
- VERSES WRITTEN IN FEBRUARY, 1827. ()
- VOLUNTEER'S SONG, WRITTEN IN 1803. ()
- A WINTER'S DAY. ()