DAUGHTER OF THE LATE EARL RIVERS ,

When with child.

As when the sun walks fortli in flaming gold,
Mean plants may smile, and humble flow'rs unfold,
The low-laid lark the distant ether wings,
And as she soars her daring anthem sings;
So when thy charms celestial views create,
My smiling song surmounts my gloomy fate;
Thy angel-embryo prompts my tow'ring lays,
Claims my fond wish, and fires my future praise:
May it, if male, its grandsire's image wear,
Or in its mother's charms confess the fair!
At the kind birth may each mild planet wait;
Soft be the pain, but prove the blessing great!
Hail, Rivers! hallow'd shade! descend from rest!
Descend, and smile to see thy Rochford blest:
Weep not the scenes thro' which my life must run,
Tho' Fate, fleet-footed, scents thy languid son,
The bar that, dark'ning, cross'd my crested claim,
Yields at her charms, and brightens in their flame;
That blood which, honour'd, in thy Rochford reigns.
In cold unwilling wand'rings trac'd my veins:
Want's wintry realm froze hard around my view,
And Scorn's keen blasts a cutting anguish blew.
To such sad weight my gath'ring griefs were wrought,
Life seem'd not life but when convuls'd with thought!
Decreed beneath a mother's frown to pine,
Madness were ease to mis'ry form'd like mine!
Yet my Muse waits thee thro' the realms of day,
Where lambent lightnings round thy temples play.
Sure my fierce woes will, like those fires, refine,
Thus lose their torture, and thus glorious shine!
And now the Muse heav'ns milky path surveys,
With thee 'twixt pendent worlds it wond'ring strays,
Worlds which, unnumber'd as thy virtues, roll
Round suns — fix'd, radiant emblems of thy soul!
Hence lights refracted run thro' distant skies,
Changeful on azure plains in quiv'ring dyes!
So thy mind darted thro' its earthy frame
A wide, a various, and a glitt'ring flame.
Now a new scene enormous lustre brings,
Now seraphs shade thee round with silver wings;
In angel forms thou seest thy Rochford shine:
In each sweet form is trac'd her beauteous line!
Such was her soul, ere this selected mould
Sprung at thy wish, the sparkling life t' infold!
So amidst cherubs shone her son refin'd
Ere infant flesh the new-form'd soul enshrin'd!
So shall a sequent race from Rochford rise,
The world's fair pride — descendents of the skies.