O WHY SHOULD MORTALS SUFFER CARE. Susanna Blamire Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 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. 194-196.

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O WHY SHOULD MORTALS SUFFER CARE . Air — Give round the word Dismount . O why should mortals suffer care To rob them of their present joy ? The moments that frail life can spare Why should we not in mirth employ ? Then come , my friends , this very hour Let us devote to social glee ; To-morrow is a day unseen That may destroy the fairest flower , And bring dull care to you and me , Though so gay as we have been . The wretch who money makes his god Will feel his heart ache when 'tis gone ; Were this my lot I'd kiss the rod , I ne'er had much , and care for none . Then come , &c. The great had never charms for me , I follow not their chariot's wheel , Their faults I just as plain can see As Paris did Achilles' heel . Then come , &c. And Love , with all his softening powers , Could ne'er my hardy soul subdue ; So I'll devote my social hours To mirth , to happiness , and you . Then come , &c. Should dread of future ills molest , I'd charm them from my careless heart ; See , Hope steps in , all gaily drest , And vows such souls should never part . Then come , &c. Yet part we must , — Hope , thou'rt a cheat The vision's fled — the friends are gone ; Yet memory shall their words repeat , And fonder grow of every one . But still in absence let us try To think of all the pleasure past , And stop the tear , and check the sigh ; For though such pleasure cannot last , Yet Time may still renew the scene Where so gay as we have been . This song has long been exceedingly popular in Cumberland , and is generally sung at the social parties in and about Carlisle .