SHOCK'S fate I mourn; poor Shock is now no more; Ye Muses, mourn; ye chambermaids, deplore. Unhappy Shock! yet more unhappy Fair, Doomed to survive thy joy and only care! Thy wretched fingers now no more shall deek, And tie the favourite riband round his neck; No more thy hand shall smooth his glossy hair, And comb the wavings of his pendant ear. Yet cease thy flowing grief, forsaken maid; All mortal pleasures in a moment fade; Our surest hope is in an hour destroyed, And love, best gift of Heaven, not long enjoyed. Methinks I see her frantic with despair, Her streaming eyes, wrung hands, and flowing hair; Her Mechlin pinners, rent, the floor bestrow, And her torn fan gives real signs of woe. Hence Superstition, that tormenting guest, That haunts with fancied fears the coward breast; No dread events upon this fate attend, Stream, eyes, no more, no more thy tresses rend. Though certain omens oft forewarn a state, And dying lions show the monarch's fate; Why should such fears bid Celia's sorrow rise? For, when a lap-dog falls, no lover dies. Cease, Celia, cease; restrain thy flowing tears, Some warmer passion will dispel thy cares. In man you'll find a more substantial bliss, More grateful toying, and a sweeter kiss. He's dead. Oh lay him gently in the ground! And may his tomb be by this verse renowned: 'Here Shock, the pride of all his kind, is laid, Who fawned like man, but ne'er like man betrayed.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BAY FIGHT by HENRY HOWARD BROWNELL THE ORPHAN BOY'S TALE by AMELIA OPIE EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 27. THE POWER OF ELOQUENCE IN LOVE by PHILIP AYRES TWELVE SONNETS: 10. THY WHITENESS by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) PSALM 79 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE SKETCHES OF THE TEXAS PRAIRIE: 'APRIL RAINS' by GEORGE BOND |