Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake
William Walsh (1663–1708)Sonnet: ‘What has this bugbear death that ’s worth our care?’
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After a life of pain and sorrow past,
After deluding hopes and dire despair,
Death only gives us quiet at the last;
How strangely are our love and hate misplaced!
Freedom we seek, and yet from freedom flee,
Courting those tyrant-sins that chain us fast,
And shunning death that only sets us free.
’Tis not a foolish fear of future pains,—
Why should they fear who keep their souls from stains?—
That makes me dread thy terrors, Death, to see;
’Tis not the loss of riches or of fame,
Or the vain toys the vulgar pleasures name,
’Tis nothing, Celia, but the losing thee!