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Lo, at the couch where infant beauty sleeps. Her silent watch the mournful mother keeps.

Published as the Act directs by Longman & Rees, London, July 1800.

Tell, that while Love's fpontaneous fmile endears

The days of peace, the sabbath of his years,

Health shall prolong to many a festive hour
The focial pleasures of his humble bower.

Lo! at the couch where infant beauty fleeps, Her filent watch the mournful mother keeps;

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She, while the lovely babe unconfcious lies,
Smiles on her flumb'ring child with penfive eyes,
And weaves a fong of melancholy joy-

"Sleep, image of thy father, fleep, my boy +
No ling'ring hour of forrow fhall be thine;

No figh that rends thy father's heart and mine;
Bright as his manly fire, the fon fhall be

In form and foul; but, ah! more bleft than he !
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Thy fame, thy worth, thy filial love, at last,

Shall foothe this aching heart for all the past

With many a fmile my folitude repay,

And chafe the world's ungenerous scorn away.

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"And fay, when fummon'd from the world and thee,

I lay my head beneath the willow tree;

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Wilt thou, fweet mourner! at my ftone appear,

And foothe my parted spirit ling'ring near?

Oh, wilt thou come, at ev'ning hour, to fhed

The tears of Memory o'er my narrow bed ;

With aching temples on thy hand reclin'd,

Muse on the last farewell I leave behind,

Breathe a deep figh to winds that murmur low,

And think on all my love, and all my woe?"

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So fpeaks affection, ere the infant eye

Can look regard, or brighten in reply;

But when the cherub lip hath learnt to claim

A mother's ear by that endearing name;

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Soon as the playful innocent can prove

A tear of pity, or a smile of love,

Or cons his murm'ring task beneath her care,

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Or lifps with holy look his ev'ning prayer,

Or gazing, mutely penfive, fits to hear

The mournful ballad warbled in his ear;

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How glows the joyous parent to defcry

A guilelefs bofom, true to fympathy!

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Where is the troubled heart, confign'd to share

Tumultuous toils, or folitary care,

Unbleft by vifionary thoughts that stray

To count the joys of Fortune's better day!
Lo, nature, life, and liberty relume

The dim-ey'd tenant of the dungeon gloom,
A long loft friend, or haplefs child reflor'd,
Smile at his blazing hearth and focial board ;

Warm from his heart the tears of rapture flow,

And virtue triumphs o'er remember'd woe.

Chide not his peace, proud Reafon! nor destroy

The fhadowy forms of uncreated joy,

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That urge the lingering tide of life, and pour

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Spontaneous flumber on his midnight hour.

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