Classic Poem

RECITED BY THE AUTHOR, AT FREEMASON'S HALL, APRIL 27, 1797.

Our social board the Stoic might attend,
Pleasure the means, benevolence the end!
While thousands croud to hear the warbling strain,
Few seek the mansions of distress and pain;
They thirst for pleasure, little understood,
Nor know the luxury of doing good.
And yet the liberal stream of bounty flows
To mitigate the helpless beggar's woes;
A thousand charities their aid extend
To prove that England is misfortune's friend.
But oh how hard the task to yield relief,
Where genius feels a dignity in grief!
Where the proud spirit of a gen'rous breast,
From ostentatious bounty shrinks opprest!
The letter'd victim, pining with the smart
Of worth neglected, cank'ring at his heart,
Rejects the gold that vanity supplies,
But while he scorns the insult, starving dies.
Be it yours a blest asylum to create,
To meliorate the friendless author's fate;
To yield relief, yet spare the honest pride
That still attendant walks by merit's side.
" That gen'rous pride that scorns all servile art,
" And warms in poverty, the noble heart,
" Feels its own value, yet would blush with shame
" To rob an other of his well-earn'd fame.
Be it yours to raise some Otway's drooping head,
Who pines in want, yet cannot beg for bread.
Lamented Otway! whose energic lyre
Yields but to Shakspeare's never-equall'd fire!
Condemn'd to penury, disease, and pain,
He dragg'd, with weary steps, life's heavy chain;
Gifted by Heav'n, he sunk in sad neglect,
No friendly hand to succour and protect;
But doom'd, with aggravated grief, to find
The great regardless, and the rich unkind!
At length, the niggard poor relief supplied,
The famish'd bard but tasted, groan'd, and died.
Eternal blot on Charles's vicious reign!
When genius languish'd in distress, and pain,
While pamper'd sycophants, a servile band!
Enjoy'd the favours of his lavish hand.
Such foul reproach this age can never fear;
Neglected merit finds its patrons here ,
Patrons from feeling, not from vain display,
Where the coarse manner takes the worth away;
But those who feel for genius in distress,
Ambitious only of the pow'r to bless.