“VITAL SPARK OF HEAVENLY FLAME.”
This paraphrase, by Alexander Pope, of the Emperor Adrian's death-bed address to his soul—
Animula, vagula, blandula,
Hospes, comesque corporis,
—transfers the poetry and constructs a hymnic theme.
An old hymn writer by the name of Flatman wrote a Pindaric, somewhat similar to “Adrian's Address,” as follows:
When on my sick-bed I languish,
Full of sorrow, full of anguish,
Fainting, gasping, trembling, crying,
Panting, groaning, speechless, dying;