ON THE DEATH OF THE REV. WILLIAM BENWELL, M.A. William Lisle Bowles 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. 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.

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