English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
| |
| 318. To Mary Unwin |
| | | William Cowper (1731–1800) |
| |
| |
| MARY! I want a lyre with other strings, | |
| Such aid from heaven as some have feign’d 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 it 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. | |
| |
|
|
|
