LYRIC POEMS. 299 A Funeral Poem on the Peak of Thomas Gunton, Esq. Presented to the Right Ilonourable the Lady Abney, Lady Mayoress of London. Mau,00, - Jrl.v, 1701. "'HAD I been a common mourner at the funeral of the dear gentleman de- ceased, I should have laboured after more of art in the following composition, to supply the defect of nature, and to feign a sorrow ; but the uncommon condes- cension of his friendship to me, the inward esteem I pay his memory, and the vast and tender sense I have of the loss, make all the methods of art needless, whilst natural grief supplies more than all. " I had resolvedindeed to lament in sighs and silence, and frequently checked the too forward muse: but the importunity was not to, be resisted; long lines of sorrow flowed in upon me ere I was aware, whilst t took many a solitary walk in the garden adjoining to his seat at Newington ; nor could I free myself from the crowd of melancholy ideas. Your ladyship will find throughout the poem, that the fair and unfinished building which he had just raised for himself, gave almost all, the turns of mourning to my thoughts; for I pursue no other topics of elegy tharl what my passion and my senses led me to. " The poem roves, as my eyes and grief did, from one part of the fabric to the other: It rises from the foundation, salutes the walls, the doors, and the windows, drops a tear upon the roof, and climbs the turret, that pleasantretreat, where I promised myself many sweet hours of his conversation; there my song wanders amongst the delightful subjects divine and moral, which used to entertain onr happy leisure; and thence descends to the fields and the shady walks, where - I so often enjoyed his pleasing discourse; my sorrows .diffuse themselves there without a limit; I had quite forgotten all scheme and method of writing, till I correct myself, and rise to the turret again to lainentthat desolate seat. Now if the critics laugh at the folly of the muse for taking too much notice of the golden ball, let them consider that the meanest thing that belonged to so valuable a per- son still gave some fresh and doleful reflections : And I transcribe nature without rule, and represent friendship in a mourning dress, abandoned to deepest sorrow, and with a negligence becoming woe unfeigned. -" Had I designed a complete elegy, Madam,on your dearest brother, and intended it for public view, I should have followed the usual forms of poetry, so far, at least, as to spend some pages in the character and praises of the deceased, and thence. have taken occasion to call mankind to complain aloud of the universal and un- speakable loss : But I wrote merely for myself as a friend of the dead, and to ease my full soul by breathing out my own complaints; I knew his character and virtues so well, that there was no need to mention them while I talked only with my- self; for the image of them was ever present with me, which kept the pain at the heart, intense and lively, and my tears flowing with my verse. . " Perhaps your ladyship will expect some divine thoughts and sacred medita- tions, mingled with a subject so solemn as this is : Had I formed a design of offering it to your hands, t had, composed a more Christian poem; but it was grief purely natural, for a death so surprising, that drew all the strokes of it, and therefore any reflections are chiefly of a moral strain. Such as it is, your ladyship requires a copy of it; but let it not touch your soul too tenderly, nor renew your own mournings. Receive it, Madam, as an offering of love and tears at the tomb of a departed friend, and let it abide with you as a witness of that affectionate respect and honour that I bore him; all which, as your ladyship's most rightful due, both by merit and by succession, is now humbly offered, by, Madam, Your ladyship's most hearty And obedient servant, I. WATTS.
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