In Misery's darkest cavern known,
His useful care was ever nigh,
Where hopeless Anguish poured his groan,
And lonely Want retired to die.
Epitaph on Claudius Phillips, the Musician.
Phillips, whose touch harmonious could remove
The pangs of guilty power or hapless love;
Rest here, distressed by poverty no more,
Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before;
Sleep, undisturbed, within this peaceful shrine,
Till angels wake thee with a note like thine.
LORD LYTTELTON
1709-1773.
Prologue to Thomson's Coriolanus.
For his chaste Muse employed her heaven-taught lyre
None but the noblest passions to inspire, Not one immoral, one corrupted thought,
One line, which dying he could wish to blot.