[Page 33]

To the Right Honble. the Lady Dowager Torrington
[ed.] "Presumably Margaret, widow of Viscount Torrington, who had died in 1732; she died in 1756 aged 86." (Tucker [1992], 209) (AH)
, with some Verses her Ladyship commanded me to send her.

1 When you command, the Muse obeys,
2 Proud to present her humble Lays.
3 Of writing I'll no more repent,
4 Nor think my Time unwisely spent;
5 If Verse the Happiness procures
6 Of pleasing such a Soul as yours.
7 Endless Anxiety, I find,
8 Hath dire Effects upon the Mind:
9 A Life of unsuccessful Care
10 Too often sinks us to Despair.
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11 From such a Life as this, I chuse
12 To snatch some Moments for the Muse;
13 To slight Mortality, and soar
14 To Worlds where Anguish is no more;
15 Forget Ierne's
[ed.] Ireland. (AH)
wretched State,
16 Tho' doom'd to share her cruel Fate;
17 Destin'd to pass my joyless Days,
18 Where Poverty, relentless, preys;
19 And form'd, unhappily, to grieve
20 For Miseries I can't relieve.
21 From giving Wealth my Hands are ty'd;
22 That great Felicity's deny'd.
23 Yet have I sometimes the Delight,
24 To help a Wretch by what I write;
25 To make some happier Bosoms melt;
26 And heal the Woes they never felt.
27 To Torrington, whose gen'rous Breast
28 Delights in raising the Distress'd,
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29 Adding new Honour to her Blood,
30 By all the Ways of doing Good,
31 How needless is the Poet's Art;
32 Since He, that made, enlarg'd her Heart?

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Title (in Source Edition): To the Right Honble. the Lady Dowager Torrington, with some Verses her Ladyship commanded me to send her.
Author: Mary Barber
Themes: patronage; poetry; literature; writing
Genres: epistle
References: DMI 11346

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Barber, Mary, ca. 1690-1757. Poems on Several Occasions [poems only]. London: Printed for C. Rivington, at the Bible and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1734, pp. 33-35. xlviii,283,[7]p.; 8⁰. (ESTC T42622; DMI 519; Foxon p. 45) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Harding C 3644].)

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Other works by Mary Barber