[Page 20]

ON THE DEATH OF THE REV. WILLIAM BENWELL, M.A.
13 An accomplished young friend of the author a poet and a scholar, formerly fellow of Trinity College, Oxford who died of a typhus fever, caught in administering the sacrament to one of his parishioners. Mr Benwell had only been married eleven weeks when he died.

1 Thou camest with kind looks, when on the brink
2 Almost of death I strove, and with mild voice
3 Didst soothe me, bidding my poor heart rejoice,
4 Though smitten sore: Oh, I did little think
5 That thou, my friend, wouldst the first victim fall
6 To the stern King of Terrors! Thou didst fly,
7 By pity prompted, at the poor man's cry;
8 And soon thyself were stretched beneath the pall,
9 Livid infection's prey. The deep distress
10 Of her, who best thy inmost bosom knew,
11 To whom thy faith was vowed; thy soul was true,
12 What powers of faltering language shall express?
13 As friendship bids, I feebly breathe my own,
14 And sorrowing say, Pure spirit, thou art gone!

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Title (in Source Edition): ON THE DEATH OF THE REV. WILLIAM BENWELL, M.A.
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Genres: sonnet

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Bowles, William Lisle, 1762-1850. The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. I. With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan. Edinburgh: James Nichol, 9 North Bank Street..., 1855, p. 20.  (Page images digitized from a copy held at the University of California Libraries.)

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