Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1829-06-08
SELECTED POETRY.

SELECTED POEIaI.
From the New Monthly Magazine
AZ EVERY DAY CHARACTER.
FaLieniis semiia vita Hon.
Near small village in the West,
Where MANY very worthy people
Eat, drink, play whist, and do their best
To guard from evil Church sr3 Steeple,
There s,ood.-alas! it stands no more!-
A tenement Of brick and plaster,
Of which, for forty years and four,
My good friend Ounce was lord and master!
Welcome was he, in hut ard hall,
To maids and matrons, peers and peasants,
He won the sympathles all,
By making puns, and making presents;
Though all the parish were at strife,
lie kept his counsel, and his carriage,
And laugh'd and loved quiet life,
And shrank from Chancery suits and marriage,
Sound was his claret and his head;
Warm was his double ale, and feelings,
His partners at the whist club said,
That he was isult,ess in his dealings
lie went 10 Church but once week;
Yet DIR. Poundtext always found him
Anupright man, who studied Greek,
And liked to see his friends around him.
Asylums, Hospitals and Schools.
He used to swear were made to cozen;
All who subscribed to them were fools,
And he subscribed to half dozen;
It.was his doctrine that the poor
Were always able, never willing;
And so the beggsr at his door, -
Had first abuse, and then shilling.
Some public principles he had,
But was TO fiatterer, nor fretter;
lie rapid his box when things were bad,
And said 81 cannot make them better!'
And much he loatb'd the patriots snort,
And much hc >coru ID the placeman's snutfie'
And cut the fiercest quarreis short
With" Patience, gentlemen, and shufne.
For full ten years his pointer, Speed,
Had couch'd beneath her mast er's table,
For twice ten years his old white steed
>~Hsd E.tten'd la his masters stable
they were the ug'iest beasts IN Devon;
And none knew why he fed them both,
With his own hands six days in seven.
whene'er they heard his ring or knock,
Quicker than thought. the village satterns
Flung down the.no'ei, smooth'd the frock.
Ard took up Mrs. Glasse, and psttsrnsi
Adrne was studying bakers bills;
Louisa look'd the queen Of kutters;
Jane h.ppen'd To be hemming fllls;
And Bell, by chance, was making fr'tters.
But all was vain: aud while Decay
And found him equity still, and gay,
With no fair Nurse to- bless or bore hin;
His rugged smile, and easy chair,
Hs dread Of matrimonial lectures,
His wig, his stick, his powdered hair,
Were themes for very strange conjectures,
Some ssges thought the stars above
Had crszed him with excess of knowledge;
Some heard he had been cross'd in love,
Before he came away from College
Some darkly limited, that his Grace
Did nothing, great or small, without him,
Some viii >per'd with a solemn face,
That there was something odd about him!
found him at threescore and ten,
A single man, but bent quite doubles
Sickness was coming on him then,
To take him from world of trouble
He prosed of slipping down the hill.
Discovered he grew older daily;
One frosty day he msde his viii, -
The next he sent for DIR, Bailey.
And so he lved,-and so he died!-
when last I sat beside his pillow,
He shook my hand" All" he cried,
Penelope must wear the willow,
Tell her hugg'd her rosy chain
While life was Pickering in the sockets
And saw, that when call again,
III bring license in my pocket.
"Pveleft nv house and grounds TO Fag-
q hope his masters shoes will suit him J
And Eve bequeathed TO YOU NV nag,
To feed him for nv sake-or shoot him.
The Wears wife will take old Fox
She'll find him uncommon mouser;--
And let her husband have my box,
My Bible. and my Assmsnshauser.
"whether ought to die or not
My doctors cannot quite determine;
It's Only clear that shsil rot,
And be, like Prian, food for vermin.
My debts are pAd;-but natures debt
Almost escaped nv recollection -
Tom we shall meet sgsin;-snd yet
cannot leave you my direction !"
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