"With such a pensive, pious train "Who, but a hermit, could agree-- "Ah, rather stay to grace the plain, "Or wander on the wave with me: "For you the painted barque shall wait "And I would die for such a freight." "No wandering stranger (she replied) "Can tempt me to forego my plan; "No barque that wafts him o'er the tide, "Nor many a better looking man: "Go, wanderer, plough your gloomy sea, "Constantia must a sister be. "To gain so fair a flower as you, "(The Tar returned) who would not plead? "Nor shall you, nymph, to convents go "While love can write what you must read: "Come, to yon' meadow let us stray, "I have some handsome things to say." "Love has its wish when reason fails-- "In vain he sighed, in vain he strove: "Forsake (said she) those swelling sails "If you would have me--think of love: "Great merit has your sailing art, "But absence would distract my heart." What else was said, we secret keep;-- The Tar, grown fonder of the shore, Neglects his prospects on the deep, And she of convents talks no more:-- He slyly quits the coasting trade She pities her--who seeks the shade. [33] Printed in the _Daily Advertiser_, May 1, 1790. It was republished both in the _Freeman's Journal_ and in the _National Gazette_. Text from the 1809 edition. STANZAS Occasioned by Lord Bellamont's, Lady Hay's, and Other Skeletons, being dug up in Fort George (N. Y.), 1790.[34] To sleep in peace when life is fled, Where shall our mouldering bones be laid-- What care can shun--(I ask with tears) The shovels of succeeding years! Some have maintained, when life is gone, This frame no longer is our own: Hence doctors to our tombs repair, And seize death's slumbering victims there. Alas! what griefs must Man endure! Not even in forts he rests secure:-- Time dims the splendours of a crown, And brings the loftiest rampart down. The breath, once gone, no art recalls! Away we haste to vaulted walls: Some future whim inverts the plain, And stars behold our bones again. Those teeth, dear girls--so much your care-- (With which no ivory can compare) Like these (that once were lady Hay's) May serve the belles of future days. Then take advice from yonder scull; And, when the flames of life grow dull, Leave not a tooth in either jaw, Since dentists steal--and fear no law. He, that would court a sound repose, To barren hills and deserts goes: Where busy hands admit no sun, Where he may doze, 'till all is done. Yet there, even there tho' slyly laid, 'Tis folly to defy the spade: Posterity invades the hill, And plants our relics where she will. But O! forbear the rising sigh! All care is past with them that die: Jove gave, when they to fate resigned, An opiate of the strongest kind: