RECORDED IN THE "BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA." OH, fond attempt to give a deathless lot To names ignoble, born to be forgot! In vain, recorded in historic page, They court the notice of a future age: Those twinkling tiny lustres of the land Drop one by one from Fame's neglecting hand; Lethaean gulfs receive them as they fall, And dark oblivion soon absorbs them all. So when a child (as playful children use) Has burnt to tinder a stale last-year's news, The flame extinct, he views the roving fire-- There goes my lady, and there goes the squire, There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SAPPHIC SUICIDE NOTE by JAMES GALVIN YOU KNOW WHAT PEOPLE SAY by JAMES GALVIN HIS OWNE EPITAPH by FRANCOIS VILLON VANQUISHED; ON THE DEATH OF GENERAL GRANT by FRANCIS FISHER BROWNE WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: BENJAMIN PANTIER by EDGAR LEE MASTERS ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY by JOHN MILTON A FAREWELL TO LONDON IN THE YEAR 1715 by ALEXANDER POPE MONNA INNOMINATA, A SONNET OF SONNETS: 4 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI |