Classic Poem

WHO DIED IN THE TWENTY-FIRST YEAR OF HIS AGE, 1747-8 .

Intent to hear, and bounteous to bestow,
A mind that melted at another's woe;
Studious to act the self-approving part,
That midnight-music of the honest heart!
Those silent joys the illustrious youth possess'd,
Those cloudless sunshines of the spotless breast!
From pride of peerage, and from folly free,
Life's early morn, fair Virtue! gave to thee;
Forbad the tear to steal from Sorrow's eye,
Bade anxious Poverty forget to sigh;
Like Titus, knew the value of a day,
And Want went smiling from his gates away.
The rest were honours borrow'd from the throne;
These honours, E GERTON , were all thy own!