Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William Cowper. 17311800470. 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. |