[61:2] First published in the Morning Post, May 10, 1798, with a prefatory note:—'The two following verses from the French, never before published, were written by a French Prisoner as he was preparing to go to the Guillotine': included in Literary Remains, 1836, i. 275. First collected P. W., 1893.
MORIENTI SUPERSTES
Yet art thou happier far than she
Who feels the widow's love for thee!
For while her days are days of weeping,
Thou, in peace, in silence sleeping,
In some still world, unknown, remote, 5
The mighty parent's care hast found,
Without whose tender guardian thought
No sparrow falleth to the ground.
? 1794.
THE SIGH[62:1]
When Youth his faery reign began
Ere Sorrow had proclaim'd me man;
While Peace the present hour beguil'd,
And all the lovely Prospect smil'd;
Then Mary! 'mid my lightsome glee [5]
I heav'd the painless Sigh for thee.
And when, along the waves of woe,
My harass'd Heart was doom'd to know
The frantic burst of Outrage keen,
And the slow Pang that gnaws unseen; [10]
Then shipwreck'd on Life's stormy sea
I heaved an anguish'd Sigh for thee!
But soon Reflection's power imprest
A stiller sadness on my breast;
And sickly Hope with waning eye [15]
Was well content to droop and die:
I yielded to the stern decree,
Yet heav'd a languid Sigh for thee!