INVOCATION TO SLEEP. Sleep, downy sleep, come close my eyes, Forget the world, and learn to die ; A MIDNIGHT HYMN. To thee, all-glorious, ever blessed Power, And when thou shalt my weary eye-lids close, THE FALL OF THE LEAF. See the leaves around us falling Dry and wither'd to the ground, Thus to thoughtless mortals calling, In a sad and solemn sound: Sons of Adam! once in Eden, While like us he blighted fell, Hear the lecture we are reading, 'Tis alas! the truth we tell. Virgins much, too much presuming, On your boasted white and red, View us, late in beauty blooming, Number'd now among the dead. Griping misers, nightly waking, See the end of all your care, Fled on wings of our own making, We have left our owners baren. Sons of honour; fed on praises, Fluttering high in fancied worth, Lo! the fickle air that raises, Brings us down to present earth. Learned Sophs, in systems jaded, Who for new ones daily call, Cease, at length, by us persuaded, Every leaf must have a fall. Youth, tho' yet no losses grieve you, Gay in health, and manly grace, Let no cloudless skies deceive you, Summer gives to autumn place. Venerable sires, grown hoary, Hither turn the unwilling eye, Think amidst your falling glory, Autumn tells a winter nigh. Yearly in our course returning, Man, let all thy hopes be stay'd, Bears those leaves that never fade. A THE HEAVENLY SHEPHERD. The Lord my pasture shall prepare, When in the sultry glebe I faint, Though in the paths of Death I tread, 3.. |