Verses Left by Mr. Pope

On His Lying in the Same Bed Which Wilmot, the Celebrated Earl of Rochester, Slept in at Adderbury, Then Belonging to the Duke of Argyle, July 9th, 1739

WITH no poetic ardour fired

I press the bed where Wilmot lay;

That here he lov’d, or here expired,

Begets no numbers grave or gay.

Beneath thy roof, Argyle, are bred

Such thoughts as prompt the brave to lie

Stretch’d out in honour’s nobler bed,

Beneath a nobler roof—the sky.

Such flames as high in patriots burn,

Yet stoop to bless a child or wife;

And such as wicked kings may mourn,

When Freedom is more dear than Life.

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