To John Powell, Esq.

BARRISTER AT LAW

In me long absent, long with anguish fraught,
In me, tho' silence long has deaden'd thought,
Yet mem'ry lives, and calls the Muse's aid,
To snatch our friendship from oblivion's shade.
As soon the sun shall cease the world to warm,
As soon Llannelly's Fair that world to charm,
As grateful sense of goodness, true like thine,
Shall e'er desert a breast so warm as mine.
When imag'd Cambria strikes my mem'ry's eye,
(Cambria! my darling scene!) I, sighing cry,
Where is my Powell? dear Associate! — where?
To him I would unbosom ev'ry care;
To him who early felt from beauty pain,
Gall'd in a plighted faithless virgin's chain.
At length, from her ungen'rous fetters freed,
Again he loves! he wooes! his hopes succeed!
But the gay bridegroom, Still by Fortune crost,
Is, instant, in the weeping widower lost.
Her, his sole joy! her from his bosom torn,
What feeling heart but learns, like his, to mourn?
Can Nature, then, such sudden shocks sustain?
Nature thus struck, all reason pleads in vain!
Tho' late, from reason yet he draws relief,
Dwells on her mem'ry, but dispels his grief.
Love, wealth, and fame, (tyrannic passions all!)
No more enflame him, and no more enthral,
He seeks no more in Rufus' Hall renown,
Nor envies Pelf the jargon of the gown;
But, pleas'd with competence, on rural plains
His wisdom courts that ease his worth obtains.
Would private jars, which sudden rise, increase?
His candour smiles all discord into peace.
To party storms is public weal resign'd?
Each steady patriot virtue steers his mind.
Calm on the beach, while madd'ning billows rave.
He gains philosophy from ev'ry wave;
Science from ev'ry object round he draws,
From various nature, and from Nature's laws.
He lives o'er ev'ry past historic age;
He calls forth ethics from the fabled page.
Him evangelic truth to thought excites,
And him by turns each classic Muse delights.
With wit well-natur'd, wit, that would disdain
A pleasure rising from another's pain;
Social to all, and most of bliss possest;
When most he renders all around him blest;
To unread 'squires illiterately gay,
Among the learn'd as learned full as they;
With the polite all, all-accomplish'd ease,
By Nature form'd without deceit to please.
Thus shines thy youth; and thus my friend, elate
In bless as well as worth, is truly great.
Me still should ruthless Fate, unjust, expose
Beneath those clouds that rain unnumber'd woes;
Me to some nobler sphere should Fortune raise,
To wealth conspicuous and to laurell'd praise;
Unalter'd yet be love and friendship mine;
I still am Chloe's, and I still am thine.
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