[Page 293]

An Address to his Elbow-chair, new cloath'd.

1 MY dear companion, and my faithful friend!
2 If Orpheus taught the listening oaks to bend;
3 If stones and rubbish, at Amphion's call,
4 Danc'd into form, and built the Theban wall;
5 Why should'st not thou attend my humble lays,
6 And hear my grateful harp resound thy praise?
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7 True, thou art spruce and fine, a very beau;
8 But what are trappings, and external show?
9 To real worth alone I make my court;
10 Knaves are my scorn, and coxcombs are my sport.
11 Once I beheld thee far less trim and gay;
12 Ragged, disjointed, and to worms a prey;
13 The safe retreat of every lurking mouse;
14 Derided, shun'd; the lumber of my house!
15 Thy robe, how chang'd from what it was before!
16 Thy velvet robe, which pleas'd my sires of yore!
17 Tis thus capricious Fortune wheels us round;
18 Aloft we mount then tumble to the ground.
19 Yet grateful then, my constancy I prov'd;
20 I knew thy worth; my friend in rags I lov'd!
21 I lov'd thee, more; nor like a courtier, spurn'd
22 My benefactor, when the tide was turn'd.
23 With conscious shame, yet frankly, I confess,
24 That in my youthful days I lov'd thee less.
25 Where vanity, where pleasure call'd, I stray'd;
26 And every wayward appetite obey'd.
27 But sage experience taught me how to prize
28 Myself; and how, this world: she bade me rise
29 To nobler flights, regardless of a race
30 Of factious emmets; pointed where to place
31 My bliss, and lodg'd me in thy soft embrace.
32 Here on thy yielding down I sit secure;
33 And, patiently, what heav'n has sent, endure;
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34 From all the futile cares of business free;
35 Not fond of life, but yet content to be:
36 Here mark the fleeting hours; regret the past;
37 And seriously prepare, to meet the last.
38 So safe on shore the pension'd sailor lies;
39 And all the malice of the storm defies:
40 With ease of body blest, and peace of mind,
41 Pities the restless crew he left behind;
42 Whilst, in his cell, he meditates alone
43 On his great voyage, to the world unknown.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): An Address to his Elbow-chair, new cloath'd.
Themes: objects
Genres: heroic couplet; thing-poem
References: DMI 22050

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Source edition

Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. IV. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], pp. 293-295. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.004) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)

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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.

Other works by William Somervile