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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  470. To Mary Unwin

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

William Cowper. 1731–1800

470. To Mary Unwin

MARY! I want a lyre with other strings, 
Such aid from Heaven as some have feign’d they drew, 
An eloquence scarce given to mortals, new 
And undebased by praise of meaner things; 
That ere through age or woe I shed my wings,         5
I may record thy worth with honour due, 
In verse as musical as thou art true, 
And that immortalizes whom it sings: 
But thou hast little need. There is a Book 
By seraphs writ with beams of heavenly light,  10
On which the eyes of God not rarely look, 
A chronicle of actions just and bright— 
  There all thy deeds, my faithful Mary, shine; 
  And since thou own’st that praise, I spare thee mine.