William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909.
On the Death of a Particular FriendJames Thomson (17001748)
A
String after string is sever’d from the heart;
Till loosen’d life, at last but breathing clay,
Without one pang is glad to fall away.
Whose eyes have wept o’er every friend laid low,
Dragg’d ling’ring on from partial death to death,
Till, dying, all he can resign is—breath.