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A MONOLOGUE.
1 O CHATTERTON! for thee the pensive song I raise,
2 Thou object of my wonder, pity, envy, praise!
3 Bright Star of Genius! — torn from life and fame,
4 My tears, my verse, shall consecrate thy name!
5 Ye Muses! who around his natal bed
6 Triumphant sung, and all your influence shed;
7 APOLLO! thou who rapt his infant breast,
8 And, in his daedal numbers, shone confest,
9 Ah! why, in vain, such mighty gifts bestow
10 — Why give fresh tortures to the Child of Woe?
11 Why thus, with barb'rous care, illume his mind,
12 Adding new sense to all the ills behind?
13 Thou haggard! Poverty! whose cheerless eye
14 Transforms young rapture to the pond'rous sigh;
15 In whose drear cave no Muse e'er struck the lyre,
16 Nor Bard e'er madden'd with poetic fire;
17 Why all thy spells for CHATTERTON combine?
18 His thought creative, why must thou confine?
19 Subdu'd by thee, his pen no more obeys,
20 No longer gives the song of ancient days;
21 Nor paints in glowing tints from distant skies,
22 Nor bids wild scen'ry rush upon our eyes —
23 Check'd in her flight, his rapid genius cowers,
24 Drops her sad plumes, and yields to thee her powers.
25 Behold him, Muses! see your fav'rite son
26 The prey of WANT, ere manhood is begun!
27 The bosom ye have fill'd, with anguish torn —
28 The mind you cherish'd, drooping and forlorn!
29 And now Despair her sable form extends,
30 Creeps to his couch, and o'er his pillow bends.
31 Ah, see! a deadly bowl the fiend conceal'd,
32 Which to his eye with caution is reveal'd —
33 Seize it, APOLLO! — seize the liquid snare!
34 Dash it to earth, or dissipate in air!
35 Stay, hapless Youth! refrain — abhor the draught,
36 With pangs, with racks, with deep repentance fraught!
37 Oh, hold! the cup with woe ETERNAL flows,
38 More — more than Death the pois'nous juice bestows!
39 In vain! — he drinks — and now the searching fires
40 Rush through his veins, and writhing he expires!
41 No sorrowing friend, no sister, parent, nigh,
42 To sooth his pangs, or catch his parting sigh;
43 Alone, unknown, the Muses' darling dies,
44 And with the vulgar dead unnoted lies!
45 Bright Star of Genius! — torn from life and fame,
46 My tears, my verse, shall consecrate thy name!
About this text
Author: Hannah Cowley (née Parkhouse)
Themes:
poetry; literature; writing
Genres:
eulogy
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Cowley, Mrs. (Hannah), 1743-1809. The Maid of Arragon; a Tale. By Mrs. Cowley. Part I. London: printed by T. Spilsbury, for L. Davis, T. Longman, J. Dodsley, T. Cadell, W. Owen, S. Crowder, T. Davies, T. Becket, G. Kearsley, C. Dilly, T. Evans, Richardson and Urquhart, and R. Faulder. M,DCC,LXXX., 1780. [6],46,[4]p.; 4⁰. (ESTC T38853; OTA K039355.000)
Editorial principles
The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, 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 Hannah Cowley (née Parkhouse)
- ADDRESS TO TWO CANDLES. ()
- THE FUNERAL. ()
- INVOCATION TO HORROR. ()
- INVOCATION. Written on a very hot day, in August 1783. ()
- LINES IN IMITATION OF COWLEY. ()
- THE MAID OF ARRAGON. ()
- ODE TO DELLA CRUSCA. ()
- ODE TO INDIFFERENCE. ()
- ON SEEING THE PALETTE OF A CELEBRATED PAINTER. ()
- THE SCOTTISH VILLAGE: OR, PITCAIRNE GREEN. ()
- STANZAS TO DELLA CRUSCA. ()
- A TALE FOR JEALOUSY. ()
- TO DELLA CRUSCA. ()
- TO DELLA CRUSCA. ()
- To DELLA CRUSCA. ()
- TO DELLA CRUSCA. ()
- TO DELLA CRUSCA. THE PEN. ()
- TO MR. PARKHOUSE, Of TIVERTON, DEVON. ()
- TO REUBEN. ()
- Written by MRS. COWLEY, On Reading the Verses of Lady Manners to Solitude. ()
- WRITTEN THE MORNING AFTER ANNA MATILDA's RETURN FROM A FRIEND's HOUSE, Close on the verge of WINDSOR FOREST. ()