ELEGY I. John Delap Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
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Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T116245 1122 K093079.001 Pearch, G. A collection of poems in four volumes. By several hands. Vol. I. [The second edition]. London printed for G. Pearch 1770 pp. 77-81. 4v. ; 8⁰.

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ELEGY I. AH stay ! — thy wand oblivious o'er my eyes Yet wave , mild power of sleep ! — my prayer is vain ; She flies , the partial nurse of nature flies , With all her soothing visionary train . Then let me forth ; and near yon flowering thorn Taste heaven's pure breath ; while rob'd in amber vest , Fresh from her watery couch , the youthful morn Steals on the slumbers of the drowsy east . Lo , at her presence , the strong arm of toil , With glittering sickle , mows the prime of May ; While yon poor hirelings , for the mine's rude soil , Leave to their sleeping babes their cots of clay . With sturdy step , they cheerly whistle o'er The path that flings across the reedy plain ; To the deep caverns of that yawning moor , Whose shaggy breast abhors the golden grain . There , in her green dress , nature never roves , Spreads the gay lawn , nor lifts the lordly pine , They see no melting clouds refresh the groves , No living landscape drawn by hands divine . But many a fathom from the sunny breeze , Their painful way in central night they wear ; Heave the pik'd axes on their bended knees , Or sidelong the rough quarry slowly tear . Yet while damp vapours chill each reeking brow , How loudly laughs the jovial voice of mirth ; Pleas'd that the wages of the day allow A social blaze to chear their evening hearth . There the chaste housewife , with maternal care , Her thrifty distaff plies , in grave attire ; Blest to behold her ruddy offspring wear The full resemblance of their sturdy fire . To spread with such coarse fare their homely board As fits the genius of their little fate , Free from those ills that haunt their pamper'd lord ; To be unhappy we must first be great . In these dark caves , where heaven's paternal hand , Far from the world , their private cradle laid , They toil secure ; the storms that strike the land With wild dismay roll harmless o'er their head . For who , the load of weary life to bear , Wou'd from these murky mansions chace the slave ? Who cease to breathe heaven's pure and chearful air , To be but living tenants of the grave ? Yet harrass'd as they are , their face still wears The reverend comeliness of green old age ; No stains their mind from worldly science bears ; Their ray of knowledge gleams from nature's page . The few plain rules her simple lessons give , They still thro' life with pleas'd attention ply ; Their helpless offspring bid them wish to live , Their breathless parents bid them learn to die . And surely heaven whose penetrating sight Pierces the soul , and reads its inmost groan , Must see content , with more sincere delight , Toil in the mine , than triumph on the throne ; See Charles V. of Spain , who in the full blaze of his glory resigned the throne to his son Philip , and retired to a convent in Estremadura . Charles , more pleas'd , within the convent's gloom , Seeking the slave's calm nights , their temperate days , And peaceful passage to the private tomb , Than diadem'd with glory's crimson rays . Ev'n the proud sage , whose deep mysterious brain Has reason'd all the balm of hope away , Convinc'd that learning's but ingenious pain , Might hail their happier lot , and sighing say , " Oh had I thus , within the dark profound , " By daily labor earn'd my daily food ; " Or with yon seedman sow'd the quickening ground , " Or cleav'd with ponderous axe the groaning wood . " Full many an hour that now , tho' sped with art , " On slow and dusky pinions sullen flies , " Full many an anxious wish , or pang of heart , " That reason's boasted anodyne defies , " Had ne'er been born . Nor had th' uneasy mind , " Pent in the prison of this mortal mould , " Felt its etherial energy confin'd , " Its brightest sunshine in dark clouds enroll'd , " But native sense her modest course had run ; " Her saintly lustre untaught virtue spread ; " Health crown'd my toils , and e'er the day was done , " Sound sleep beneath some alder's rustling shade . " Then , as I stole down life's declining hill , " Here nature's gifts had furnish'd nature's needs , " The brook's cold beverage every latent ill " Had starv'd , that cloyster'd contemplation feeds . " Till , in the peaceful shade of this lone bower , " Or near yon shattered tower in silence laid , " The orient orb , that watch'd my natal hour , " Had brightly glitter'd o'er my mouldering head . "