The Works of William Cowper / His life, letters, and poems, now first completed by the introduction of Cowper's private correspondence - William Cowper

ADDRESSED TO LADY HESKETH, BY A LADY,

In returning a Poem, of Mr. Cowper's, lent to the Writer, on condition she should neither show it nor take a copy.

What wonder! if my wavering hand
Had dared to disobey,
When Hesketh gave a harsh command,
And Cowper led astray.

Then take this tempting gift of thine,
By pen uncopied yet!
But canst thou Memory confine,
Or teach me to forget?

More lasting than the touch of art,
Her characters remain;
When written by a feeling heart
On tablets of the brain.

To be remember'd thus is fame,
And in the first degree;
And did the few, like her, the same,
The press might rest for me.

So Homer, in the mem'ry stor'd
Of many a Grecian belle,
Was once preserved—a richer hoard,
But never lodged so well.

William was once a bashful youth,
His modesty was such,
That one might say, to say the truth,
He rather had too much.