[Page 314]

On observing some Names of little Note recorded in the BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA.

1 OH fond attempt to give a deathless lot,
2 To names ignoble, born to be forgot!
[Page 315]
3 In vain recorded in historic page,
4 They court the notice of a future age,
5 Those twinkling tiney lustres of the land,
6 Drop one by one from Fame's neglecting hand,
7 Lethaean gulphs receive them as they fall,
8 And dark oblivion soon absorbs them all.
9 So when a child, as playful children use,
10 Has burnt to tinder a stale last year's news,
11 The flame extinct, he views the roving fire,
12 There goes my lady, and there goes the 'squire,
13 There goes the parson, oh! illustrious spark,
14 And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.

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Title (in Source Edition): On observing some Names of little Note recorded in the BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA.
Themes: vanity of life; dunces
Genres: heroic couplet

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Cowper, William, 1731-1800. Poems: by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq. London: printed for J. Johnson, 1782, pp. 314-315. [4],367,[1]p. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T14895; OTA K027775.000) (Page images digitized by the University of California Libraries.)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

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