[Page 164]

WRITTEN IN A CHURCHYARD,

ON SEEING A NUMBER OF CATTLE GRAZING IN IT.

1766

1 BE still my heart, and let this moving sight
2 Whisper a moral to each future lay;
3 Let this convince how like the lightning's flight
4 Is earthly pageantry's precarious stay.
5 Within this place of consecrated trust
6 The neighbouring herds their daily pasture find;
[Page 165]
7 And idly bounding o'er each hallow'd bust,
8 Form a sad prospect to the pensive mind.
9 Whilst o'er the graves thus carelessly they tread,
10 Allur'd by hunger to the deed profane,
11 They crop the verdure rising from the bed
12 Of some fond parent, or some love-sick swain.
13 No more does vengeance to revenge the deed
14 Lodge in their breasts, or vigour aid the blow;
15 The power to make the sad offenders bleed
16 The prostrate image ne'er again shall know.
17 Nor can the time-worn epitaph rehearse
18 The name or titles which its owner bore;
19 No more the sorrow lives within the verse,
20 For memory paints the moving scene no more.
21 Perhaps 'tis one whose noble deeds attain'd
22 Honour and fame in time of hostile war; —
23 Whose arm the Captive's liberty regain'd,
24 And stamp'd his valour with a glorious scar.
25 Alas! his widow might attend him here,
26 And children, too, the slow procession join,
27 And his fond friends indulge the trickling tear
28 O'er his last honours at the awful shrine.
29 Perhaps some orphan here might see inurn'd
30 The only guardian of her orphan years;
31 And, on the precipice of errors turn'd,
32 Become reclaim'd by sweet repentant tears.
33 The lover, too, might strain an eager look,
34 Once more attempting to survey the fair
35 Who, for his sake, her early friends forsook,
36 With him her days of joy or grief to share.
[Page 166]
37 What beauty or what charms adorn'd the frame
38 Of this cold image, now to earth consign'd;
39 Or what just praise the heart's high worth might claim,
40 The time-worn letters now no more remind.
41 Then what is honour? — what is wealth or fame?
42 Since the possessor waits the common doom!
43 As much rever'd we find the peasant's name
44 As the rich lord's, when in the levelling tomb.
45 To both alike this tribute we may send,
46 The heart-swollen sigh, or the lamenting tear;
47 And without difference o'er their ashes bend,
48 For all distinctions find a level here.
49 For nought avails the marble o'er each head,
50 Nor all the art which sculpture can bestow,
51 To save the memory of the honour'd dead,
52 Or strike the living with their wonted awe.
53 Then come, ye vain, whom Fortune deigns to bless,
54 This scene at once shall all her frauds expose;
55 And ye who Beauty's loveliest charms possess
56 From this may find a moral in the rose.
57 For soon infirmity shall fix her seat,
58 And dissolution lastly close the scene;
59 No more shall youth your jocund acts repeat,
60 Or age relate what graver years have been.
61 Yet think not death awaits the course of years,
62 He comes whilst youth her shield of health supports;
63 In every place the potent king appears,
64 To youth, to age, to every scene resorts.
65 But why, my heart, that palpitating beat!
66 Can death's idea cause that pensive gloom?
[Page 167]
67 Since in the world such thorny cares we meet,
68 And since 'tis peace within the silent tomb.
69 Yet still the thought of nature's sad decay,
70 And the reception in the world unknown,
71 Must cast a cloud o'er hope's celestial ray,
72 If not dispell'd by conscious worth alone:
73 May this support me in the awful hour
74 When earthly prospects fade before my view;
75 O! then, my friends, into my bosom pour
76 Some soothing balsam at the last adieu.
77 Say, in Elysium we shall meet again,
78 Nor there shall error hold th' enchanting rod;
79 But freed from earth at once we'll break the chain,
80 And thus releas'd shall ne'er offend our God.
81 Then hence aversion to the body's doom,
82 Nor let this scene a pensive murmur raise,
83 Nor let thought grieve when pondering o'er the tomb,
84 Though on my grave the senseless herd should graze.

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Title (in Source Edition): WRITTEN IN A CHURCHYARD, ON SEEING A NUMBER OF CATTLE GRAZING IN IT.
Author: Susanna Blamire
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Genres: elegy

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Blamire, Susanna, 1747-1794. The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire “The muse of Cumberland.” Now for the first time collected by Henry Lonsdale, M.D. with a preface, memoir, and notes by Patrick Maxwell, ... Edinburgh: John Menzies, 61 Princes Street; R. Tyas, London; D. Robertson, Glasgow; and C. Thurnam, Carlisle. MDCCCXLII., 1842, pp. 164-167.  (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [42.256].)

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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 Susanna Blamire