"As when thou call'st the shuddering thoughts to mourn / O'er talents wither'd in the untimely urn; / To grieve that Penury's resistless storm / Beat cold and deadly o'er the shrinking form, / Where mighty Genius had those powers enshrined, / Whose reign is boundless o'er each feeling mind; / To mourn that anguish durst the heart invade / Beneath the regal purple's awful shade, / That, steep'd in blood, at the fanatic frown, / From Charles' pale brows should fall the thorny crown; / That England's virgin majesty should close / A long illustrious life in bitterest woes; / She, who, in wisdom firm, as vast in power, / On grateful millions shed the prosperous hour."
Epistle to the Rev. Dr. William Bagshot Stevens, of Repton, Derbyshire, Written in 1783. [from The Poetical Works]
Text from <u>The Poetical Works of Anna Seward; with Extracts from Her Literary Correspondence.</u> ed. Walter Scott. 3 vols. (Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. for John Ballantyne and Co., 1810).