REFLECTIONS, On reading the life of the late Henry Kirke White. BY WILLIAM HOLLOWAY, Author of "The Peasant's Fate." DARLING of science and the muse, To shed a tear for thee? To us so soon, for ever lost, What hopes, what prospects have been cross'd By Heaven's supreme decree? How could a parent, love beguil'd, Yet Fancy, hov'ring round the tomb, Dear poet, saint, and sage! Who into one short span, at best, A patriarch's lengthen'd age! To him a genius sanctified, Chaste as the psalmist's harp, his lyre And lift the soul to Heav'n. "Twas not the laurel earth bestows, With classic toil he sought: He sought the crown that martyrs wear, Here come, ye thoughtless, vain, and gay, And learn the worth of time: Learn ye, whose days have run to waste, How to redeem this pearl at last, Atoning for your crime. This flow'r, that droop'd in one cold clime, To immortality, In full perfection there shall bloom: And those who now lament his doom Must bow to God's decree. London, 27th Feb, 1808. ON READING THE POEM ON SOLITUDE, In the second Volume of H. K. White's "Remains." BUT art thou thus indeed " alone?" Is not his voice in evening's gale? Each flutt'ring hope-each anxious fear- JOSIAH CONder. TO THE MEMORY OF H. K. WHITE, By the Rev. W. B. COLLYER, D. D. O, LOST too soon! accept the tear All the wild notes that pity lov'd The chords that in the human heart, Amidst accumulated woes, That premature afflictions bring, When o'er thy dawn the darkness spread, Religion heard no 'plainings loud, And pity, from the dropping cloud,' Cold is that heart in which were met More virtues than could ever die; The morning-star of hope is set The sun adorns another sky. O partial grief! to mourn the day Oft genius early quits this sod, Spreads the light pinion, spurns the clod, But more than genius urg'd thy flight, On wings of immortality! Blackheath Hill, 24th June, 1808. ON THE DEATH OF HENRY KIRKE WHITE, By THOMAS PARK, Esq. F. A. S. TOO, too prophetic did thy wild note swell, * See Clifton Grove, p. 16, ed. 1803. |