Page 94 - Graveyard

92 | G r av e y ar d H u m o r

Here doubtless many a trifler on the brink
Of this world’s hazardous and headlong shore,
Forc’d to a pause, will feel it good to think,
Told that his setting sun may rise no more!
Ye self-deceived: could I prophetic say,
Who next is fated, and who next shall fall,
The rest might then seem privileged to play;
But naming none, Time’s voice here speaks to all!
Learn, then, ye living! by the mouths be taught
Of all these sepulchres, instruction true—
That soon or late, death also is your lot,
And the next opening grave may yawn for you!

At the further end of the vault is Death, engraved on a black marble slab.

260. On William Cowper, the poet.

The immortal Cowper was buried in St. Edmund’s chapel, East Dereham,
county of Norfolk, and over his grave a monument is erected, bearing the
following inscription, from the pen of Mr. Hayley:—

In memory of William Cowper, Esq., born in Herefordshire, 1731,
buried in this church, 1800.

Ye, who with warmth the public triumph feel,
Of talents dignified by public zeal,
Here, to devotion’s bard devoutly just,
Pay your fond tribute due to Cowper’s dust!
England, exulting in his spotless fame,
Ranks with her dearest sons his fav’rite name;
Sense, fancy, wit, suffice not all to raise
So clear. a title to affection’s praise;
His highest honours to the heart belong,
His virtues form the magic of his song.

261. On Mr. Edward Everard, in Tottenham Churchyard:—