| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | To Mary Unwin | | By William Cowper (1731–1800) |
| | | MARY! I want a lyre with other strings, | |
| Such aid from Heaven as some have feigned they drew, | |
| An eloquence scarce given to mortals, new | |
| And undebased by praise of meaner things, | |
| That, ere through age or woe I shed my wings, | 5 |
| I may record thy worth with honour due, | |
| In verse as musical as thou art true, | |
| And that immortalizes whom its sings. | |
| But thou hast little need. There is a book | |
| By seraphs writ with beams of heavenly light, | 10 |
| On which the eyes of God not rarely look, | |
| A chronicle of actions just and bright: | |
| There all thy deeds, my faithful Mary, shine, | |
| And, since thou own’st that praise, I spare thee mine. | | | | |
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