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ON HEARING OF THE DEATH OFGEORGINA CHARLOTTE GORDON BOOKER,NIECE TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GORDON,1815.
Now youth and merit fill the sable bier,And lacerated friendship drops the tear:—Year chases year, decay pursues decay,And steals some joy from with'ring life away.JOHNSON.
And are thy blue eyes, Charlotte, clos'd in death? And his pale signet stamp'd upon thy face;And hush'd, for ever hush'd, that tuneful breath, And thy fair form despoil'd of ev'ry grace?—And art thou laid in thy last resting place? Ah! envied rest!—Yet thou wast in the bloomOf early life, and lodg'd in the embrace Of friends and fortune:—now the mournful tomb Enshrines thee in its dark sepulchral gloom.
Farewell, sweet Charlotte! gentle friend, adieu! Few were thy days, and short thy sojourn here;But, yet unmark'd by sorrows as they flew, Or aught of grief, save pity's tender tear—For pity to thy feeling heart was dear, And thine the sigh that heav'd for other's woesThe gentler Virtues mourn around thy bier, And guard the hallow'd spot of thy repose, While friendship's purest tear profusely flows!
