TO Thomas Gunston Esq

Happy Solitude.

I.

THE noisy World complains of me
 That I should shun their Sight, and flee
 Visits, and Crowds and Company. 
GUNSTON, the Lark dwells in her Nest
 Until she mount the Skies;
 And in my Closet I could rest
 Till to the Heavens I rise. 

II.

Yet they will urge, "This private Life
" Can never make you Blest,
 "And twenty Doors are still at Strife
" T' engage you for a Guest? 
Friend, should you see the Louvre, or Whitehall
 Open their Royal Gates, and call,
 And wait for WATTS to come,
 He has no Business there at all
 Who finds so much at Home. 

III.

When I within my self retreat,
 I shut my Doors against the Great;
 My busy Eyeballs inward roll,
 And there with large survey I see
 All the wide Theatre of Me,
 And view the various Scenes of my retiring Soul;
 There I walk o're the Mazes I have trod,
 While Hope and Fear are in a doubtful Strife
 Whether this Opera of Life
 Be acted well to gain the Plaudit of my God. 

IV.

There's a Day hastning, ('tis an Awful Day)
 When the great Sovereign shall at large review
 All that we speak and all we do,
 The several Parts we act on this wide Stage of Clay:
 These he approves, and those he blames,
 And Crowns perhaps a Porter, and a Prince he Damns
 O if the Judge from his tremendous Seat
 Shall not condemn what I have done,
 I shall be Happy tho' unknown,
 Nor need the gazing Rabble, nor the shouting Street. 

V.

I hate the Glory, Friend, that springs
 From Vulgar Breath and empty Sound;
 Fame mounts her upward with a Flatt'ring Gale
 Upon her Airy Wings
 Till Envy Shoots, and Fame receives the Wound;
 Then her flagging Pinions fail,
 Down Glory falls and strikes the Ground
 And breaks her batter'd Limbs. 
Rather let me be quite conceal'd from Fame;
 How happy I should lye
 In Sweet Obscurity,
 Nor the Loud World pronounce my little Name! 
Here I could live and dye alone;
 Or if Society be due
 To keep our Tast of Pleasure new,
 GVNSTON, I'de live and die with you,
 For both our Souls are one. 

VI.

Here we could sit and pass the pleasing Hour,
 And Pity Kingdoms and their Kings,
 And smile at all their shining Things,
 Their Toys of State, and Images of Power;
 Vertue should dwell within our Seat,
 Vertue alone could make it sweet,
 Nor is her self secure but in a close Retreat. 
While she withdraws from publick Praise
 Envy perhaps would cease to rail,
 Envy it self may innocently gaze
 At Beauty in a Vail. 
But if she once advance to Light,
 Her Charms are lost in Envy's Sight,
 And Vertue is the Mark of Universal Spight.