[Page 194]

O WHY SHOULD MORTALS SUFFER CARE.

Air Give round the word Dismount.
1 O why should mortals suffer care
2 To rob them of their present joy?
3 The moments that frail life can spare
4 Why should we not in mirth employ?
5 Then come, my friends, this very hour
6 Let us devote to social glee;
7 To-morrow is a day unseen
8 That may destroy the fairest flower,
9 And bring dull care to you and me,
10 Though so gay as we have been.
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11 The wretch who money makes his god
12 Will feel his heart ache when 'tis gone;
13 Were this my lot I'd kiss the rod,
14 I ne'er had much, and care for none.
Then come, &c.
15 The great had never charms for me,
16 I follow not their chariot's wheel,
17 Their faults I just as plain can see
18 As Paris did Achilles' heel.
Then come, &c.
19 And Love, with all his softening powers,
20 Could ne'er my hardy soul subdue;
21 So I'll devote my social hours
22 To mirth, to happiness, and you.
Then come, &c.
23 Should dread of future ills molest,
24 I'd charm them from my careless heart;
25 See, Hope steps in, all gaily drest,
26 And vows such souls should never part.
Then come, &c.
27 Yet part we must, Hope, thou'rt a cheat
28 The vision's fled the friends are gone;
29 Yet memory shall their words repeat,
30 And fonder grow of every one.
31 But still in absence let us try
32 To think of all the pleasure past,
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33 And stop the tear, and check the sigh;
34 For though such pleasure cannot last,
35 Yet Time may still renew the scene
36 Where so gay as we have been.
1. This song has long been exceedingly popular in Cumberland, and is generally sung at the social parties in and about Carlisle.

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Title (in Source Edition): O WHY SHOULD MORTALS SUFFER CARE.
Themes:
Genres: song; refrain

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Blamire, Susanna, 1747-1794. The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire “The muse of Cumberland.” Now for the first time collected by Henry Lonsdale, M.D. with a preface, memoir, and notes by Patrick Maxwell, ... Edinburgh: John Menzies, 61 Princes Street; R. Tyas, London; D. Robertson, Glasgow; and C. Thurnam, Carlisle. MDCCCXLII., 1842, pp. 194-196.  (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [42.256].)

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Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. 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.

Other works by Susanna Blamire