OLINTHUS GREGORY, L.L.D., F.R.A.S., &c. "THE following lines allude to Dr. Gregory's late domestic calamity. Mr. Boswell Gregory, his eldest son, was drowned by the boat's upsetting as he was returning home by water to his father's house at Woolwich." Is there a spot where Pity's foot, Although unsandalled, fears to tread, Where tears, and only tears, are shed? Where Hope was yet a recent guest, They gave my hand the pictured scroll, A parent's agony of soul, A parent's long and last despair; The sunshine on the sudden wave, Which closed above the youthful head, Mocking the green and quiet grave, I thought upon the lone fire-side, The future, where a father's pride So much from present promise wrought; The sweet anxiety of fears, Anxious from love's excess alone, The fond reliance upon years More precious to us than our own: All past-then weeping words there came They said he was so good and kind, The voices sank, the eyes grew dim; So much of love he left behind, So much of life had died with him. OLINTHUS GREGORY, LL.D. F.R.A.S. Ah, pity for the long beloved, The father, who within the tomb Sees all life held most dear enshrined. IVY BRIDGE, DEVONSHIRE. Oн, recall not the past, though this valley be filled Wear the light or the hues that encircled the first. Alas for the spring time! alas for our youth! The grave has no slumber more cold than the heart, When languid and darkened it sinks into truth, And sees the sweet colours of morning depart. Life still has its falsehoods to lure and to leave, But they cannot delude like the earlier light; We know that the twilight encircles the eve, And sunset is only the rainbow of night. |