The Poems of Philip Freneau Volume III Part 5

Philosophers are famed for pride; But, pray, be modest--when I died, No "sighs disturbed old ocean's bed,"

No "Nature wept" for Franklin dead!

That day, on which I left the coast, A beggar-man was also lost: If "Nature wept," you must agree She wept for him--as well as me.

There's reason even in telling lies-- In such profusion of her "sighs,"

She was too sparing of a tear-- In Carolina, all was clear:

And, if there fell some snow and sleet, Why must it be my winding sheet?

Snows oft have cloathed the April plain, Have melted, and will melt again.

Poets, I pray you, say no more, Or say what Nature said before; That reason should your pens direct, Or else you pay me no respect.

Let reason be your constant rule, And Nature, trust me, is no fool-- When to the dust great men she brings, Make her do--some uncommon things."

[32] Published in the _Daily Advertiser_, May 24, 1790, with the t.i.tle "Verses from the Other World, by Dr. Fr--k--n." Text from the 1809 edition.

CONSTANTIA[33]

[On a Project of Retiring to Bethlehem]

Sick of the world, in prime of days Constantia took a serious fit-- Resolved to shun all b.a.l.l.s and plays And only read what saints had writ-- To Convent Hall she would repair And be a pensive sister there.

"What are they all--this glare of things, These insects that around me s.h.i.+ne; These beaux and belles on silken wings-- Indeed their pleasures make not mine-- My happiness is all delayed-- I'll go, and find it in the shade."

A sailor, loitering from his crew, As chance would have it, pa.s.sed along-- She told him what she had in view, And he replied--"Fair maid you're wrong, "Let faded nymphs to cloisters go, "Where kisses freeze and love is snow.

"The druids' oak and hermits' pine "Afford a gloomy, sad delight; "But why that blush of health resign, "The mingled tint of red and white?

"In moistening cells the flowers expire "That, on the plain, all eyes admire.

"With such a pensive, pious train "Who, but a hermit, could agree-- "Ah, rather stay to grace the plain, "Or wander on the wave with me: "For you the painted barque shall wait "And I would die for such a freight."

"No wandering stranger (she replied) "Can tempt me to forego my plan; "No barque that wafts him o'er the tide, "Nor many a better looking man: "Go, wanderer, plough your gloomy sea, "Constantia must a sister be.

"To gain so fair a flower as you, "(The Tar returned) who would not plead?

"Nor shall you, nymph, to convents go "While love can write what you must read: "Come, to yon' meadow let us stray, "I have some handsome things to say."

"Love has its wish when reason fails-- "In vain he sighed, in vain he strove: "Forsake (said she) those swelling sails "If you would have me--think of love: "Great merit has your sailing art, "But absence would distract my heart."

What else was said, we secret keep;-- The Tar, grown fonder of the sh.o.r.e, Neglects his prospects on the deep, And she of convents talks no more:-- He slyly quits the coasting trade She pities her--who seeks the shade.

[33] Printed in the _Daily Advertiser_, May 1, 1790. It was republished both in the _Freeman's Journal_ and in the _National Gazette_. Text from the 1809 edition.

STANZAS

Occasioned by Lord Bellamont's, Lady Hay's, and Other Skeletons, being dug up in Fort George (N. Y.), 1790.[34]

To sleep in peace when life is fled, Where shall our mouldering bones be laid-- What care can shun--(I ask with tears) The shovels of succeeding years!

Some have maintained, when life is gone, This frame no longer is our own: Hence doctors to our tombs repair, And seize death's slumbering victims there.

Alas! what griefs must Man endure!

Not even in forts he rests secure:-- Time dims the splendours of a crown, And brings the loftiest rampart down.

The breath, once gone, no art recalls!

Away we haste to vaulted walls: Some future whim inverts the plain, And stars behold our bones again.

Those teeth, dear girls--so much your care-- (With which no ivory can compare) Like these (that once were lady Hay's) May serve the belles of future days.

Then take advice from yonder scull; And, when the flames of life grow dull, Leave not a tooth in either jaw, Since dentists steal--and fear no law.

He, that would court a sound repose, To barren hills and deserts goes: Where busy hands admit no sun, Where he may doze, 'till all is done.

Yet there, even there tho' slyly laid, 'Tis folly to defy the spade: Posterity invades the hill, And plants our relics where she will.

But O! forbear the rising sigh!

All care is past with them that die: Jove gave, when they to fate resigned, An opiate of the strongest kind:

Death is a sleep, that has no dreams: In which all time a moment seems-- And skeletons perceive no pain Till Nature bids them wake again.

[34] Published in the _Daily Advertiser_, June 17, 1790. The bodies were removed at the time the demolition of Fort George was in progress. Text from the 1809 edition.

THE ORATOR OF THE WOODS[35]

Each traveller asks, with fond surprize, Why Thyrsis wastes the fleeting year Where gloomy forests round him rise, And only rustics come to hear-- His taste is odd (they seem to say) Such talents in so poor a way!

To those that courts and t.i.tles please How dismal is his lot; Beyond the hills, beneath some trees, To live--and be forgot-- In dull retreats, where Nature binds Her ma.s.s of clay to vulgar minds.

While you lament his barren trade, Tell me--in yonder vale Why grows that flower beneath the shade, So feeble and so pale!-- Why was she not in sun-s.h.i.+ne placed To blush and please your men of taste?

In lonely wilds, those flowers so fair No curious step allure; And chance, not choice, has placed them there, (Still charming, tho' obscure) Where, heedless of such sweets so nigh, The lazy hind goes loitering by.

[35] Published in the _Daily Advertiser_, June 29, 1790, with the explanation: "Occasioned by hearing a very elegant Discourse preached in a mean Building, by the Parson of an obscure Parrish." Text from the 1809 edition.