[Page 258]

Father FRANCIS'S Prayer.

Written in Lord WESTMORLAND'S Hermitage.

1 NE gay attire, ne marble hall,
2 Ne arched roof, ne pictur'd wall;
3 Ne cook of Fraunce, ne dainty board,
4 Bestow'd with pypes'of perigord;
5 Ne power, ne such like idle fancies,
6 Sweet Agnes grant to father Francis;
7 Let me ne more myself deceive;
8 Ne more regret the toys I leave;
9 The world I quit, the proud, the vain,
10 Corruption's and Ambition's train;
11 But not the good, perdie nor fair,
12 'Gainst them I make ne vow, ne pray'r;
13 But such aye welcome to my cell,
14 And oft, not always, with me dwell;
15 Then cast, sweet Saint, a circle round,
16 And bless from fools this holy ground;
17 From all the foes to worth and truth,
18 From wanton old, and homely youth;
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19 The gravely dull, and pertly gay,
20 Oh banish these; and by my fay,
21 Right well I ween that in this age,
22 Mine house shall prove an hermitage.

An Inscription on the Cell.

1 Beneath these moss-grown roots, this rustick cell,
2 Truth, Liberty, Content, sequester'd dwell;
3 Say you, who dare our hermitage disdain,
4 What drawing-room can boast so fair a train?

An Inscription in the Cell.

1 Sweet bird that sing'st on yonder spray,
2 Pursue unharm'd thy sylvan lay;
3 While I beneath this breezy shade,
4 In peace repose my careless head;
5 And joining thy enraptur'd song,
6 Instruct the world-enamour'd throng,
7 That the contented harmless breast
8 In solitude itself is blest.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): Father FRANCIS'S Prayer. Written in Lord WESTMORLAND'S Hermitage.
Author: Gilbert West
Themes: architecture; buildings; hopelessness; vanity of life
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Source edition

Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. IV. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], pp. 258-259. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.004) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)

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