A POET TO HIS GRANDCHILD
SEQUEL TO THE FOREGOING
A POET TO HIS GRANDCHILD
“SON of my buried Son, while thus thy hand “Is clasping mine, it saddens me to think “How Want may press thee down, and with thee sink “Thy children left unfit, through vain demand “Of culture, even to feel or understand “My simplest Lay that to their memory “May cling;–hard fate! which haply need not be “Did Justice mould the statutes of the Land. “A Book time-cherished and an honoured name “Are high rewards; but bound they Nature’s claim 10 “Or Reason’s? No–hopes spun in timid line “From out the bosom of a modest home “Extend through unambitious years to come, “My careless Little-one, for thee and thine!” May 23, 1838.