[Page 233]

On seeing an Officer's Widow distracted who had been driven to Despair, by a long and fruitless Sollicitation for the Arrears of her Pension.

1 O wretch! hath Madness cur'd thy dire Despair?
2 Yes All thy Sorrows now are light as Air:
3 No more you mourn your once lov'd Husband's Fate,
4 Who bravely perish'd for a thankless State.
5 For rolling Years thy Piety prevail'd;
6 At length, quite sunk thy Hope, thy Patience fail'd:
7 Distracted now you tread on Life's last Stage,
8 Nor feel the Weight of Poverty and Age:
9 How blest in this, compar'd with those, whose Lot
10 Dooms them to Miseries, by you forgot!
[Page 234]
11 Now, wild as Winds, you from your Off-spring fly,
12 Or fright them from you with distracted Eye;
13 Rove thro' the Streets; or sing, devoid of Care,
14 With ratter'd Garments, and dishevell'd Hair;
15 By hooting Boys to higher Phrenzy fir'd,
16 At length you fink, by cruel Treatment tir'd,
17 Sink into Sleep, an Emblem of the Dead,
18 A Stone thy Pillow, the cold Earth thy Bed.
19 O tell it not; let none the Story hear,
20 Lest Britain's Martial Sons should learn to fear:
21 And when they next the hostile Wall attack,
22 Feel the Heart fail, the lifted Arm grow slack;
23 And pausing cry Tho' Death we scorn to dread,
24 Our Orphan Off-spring, must they pine for Bread?
25 See their lov'd Mothers into Prisons thrown;
26 And, unreliev'd, in iron Bondage groan?
[Page 235]
27 BRITAIN, for this impending Ruin dread;
28 Their Woes call loud for Vengeance on thy Head:
29 Nor wonder, if Disasters wait your Fleets;
30 Nor wonder at Complainings in your Streets:
31 Be timely wise; arrest th' uplifted Hand,
32 Ere Pestilence or Famine sweep the Land.

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Title (in Source Edition): On seeing an Officer's Widow distracted who had been driven to Despair, by a long and fruitless Sollicitation for the Arrears of her Pension.
Author: Mary Barber
Themes: war; parents; children; charity; money; wealth
Genres: heroic couplet; complaint
References: DMI 11611

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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. 233-235. 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