[Page 259]

LIFE's Progress.

1 HOW gayly is at first begun
2 Our Life's uncertain Race!
3 Whilst yet that sprightly Morning Sun,
4 With which we just set out to run
5 Enlightens all the Place.
[Page 260]
6 How smiling the World's Prospect lies
7 How tempting to go through!
8 Not Canaan to the Prophet's Eyes,
9 From Pisgah with a sweet Surprize,
10 Did more inviting shew.
11 How promising's the Book of Fate,
12 Till throughly understood!
13 Whilst partial Hopes such Lots create,
14 As may the youthful Fancy treat
15 With all that's Great and Good.
16 How soft the first Ideas prove,
17 Which wander through our Minds!
18 How full the Joys, how free the Love,
19 Which do's that early Season move;
20 As Flow'rs the Western Winds!
[Page 261]
21 Our Sighs are then but Vernal Air;
22 But April-drops our Tears,
23 Which swiftly passing, all grows Fair,
24 Whilst Beauty compensates our Care,
25 And Youth each Vapour clears.
26 But oh! too soon, alas, we climb;
27 Scarce feeling we ascend
28 The gently rising Hill of Time,
29 From whence with Grief we see that Prime,
30 And all its Sweetness end.
31 The Die now cast, our Station known,
32 Fond Expectation past;
33 The Thorns, which former Days had sown,
34 To Crops of late Repentance grown,
35 Thro' which we toil at last.
[Page 262]
36 Whilst ev'ry Care's a driving Harm,
37 That helps to bear us down;
38 Which faded Smiles no more can charm,
39 But ev'ry Tear's a Winter-Storm,
40 And ev'ry Look's a Frown.
41 Till with succeeding Ills opprest,
42 For Joys we hop'd to find;
43 By Age too, rumpl'd and undrest,
44 We gladly sinking down to rest,
45 Leave following Crouds behind.

Text

  • TEI/XML [chunk] (XML - 77K / ZIP - 8.6K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
  • Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 1.5K / ZIP - 1.0K)

Facsimile (Source Edition)

(Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Buxton 100].)

Images

PDF

All Images (PDF - 4.9M)

About this text

Title (in Source Edition): LIFE's Progress.
Themes: advice; moral precepts; hopelessness; vanity of life
Genres: philosophic poetry
References: DMI 17540

Text view / Document view

Source edition

Winchilsea, Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of, 1661-1720. Miscellany poems, on several occasions: Written by the Right Honble Anne, Countess of Winchilsea. London: printed for J. B. and sold by Benj. Tooke, William Taylor, and James Round, 1713, pp. 259-262. [8],390p. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T94539; Foxon pp. 274-5; OTA K076314.000) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Buxton 100].)

Editorial principles

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.

Other works by Anne Finch (née Kingsmill), countess of Winchilsea