DESCEND , oh muse! and guide my feeble lays
My weak attempts to sing a Father’s praise,
And thou, my Father, dearest best of men,
Receive this offering of a daughter’s pen;
Accept this tribute of thy Mary’s love,
Who dares to wander in the muse’s grove,
With trembling steps their secret shades explore,
Cull a few sweets, and humbly ask for more,
And if arriv’d at fair Parnassus’ mount,
She seeks for virtue at Religion’s fount;
Views the rich streams which from Religion flow,
In gentle murmurs, peaceful, soft, and slow,
Then will she cry, my Father and my Friend,
Thou to this source my infant steps didst bend,
Didst teach my soul the grace of heavenly love,
And guide my footsteps to the realms above.
Thy bright example more than precept mov’d,
And all the force of thy instructions prov’d;
That Virtue only was man’s bliss on earth,
All his possessions, true intrinsic worth.
Continue still to guide my erring youth
To the bright regions of eternal truth;
Turn my affections from this dark abode
To the blest mansions of a righteous God;
And when upon the bed of sickness laid,
Life’s brilliant prospects disappear and fade,
When Heaven opens on your dying view,
With scenes of bliss eternal, ever new;
Then will she watch th’ immortal soul retire,
In rapt’rous visions of seraphic fire,
Then choirs of angels on thy bed shall wait,
And quick transport thee to a happier state;
Oh! then by grief and filial love opprest,
Thy wretched daughter seeks that land of rest,
Then hopes to meet thee never more to part,
And feels that hope reanimate her heart.
(Mary Abel Clinckett)
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