On the Death of the Republican Patriot and Statesman, General Joseph

Soon to the grave descends each honoured name
That raised their country to this blaze of fame:
Sages, that planned, and chiefs that led the way
To Freedom's temple, all too soon decay,
Alike submit to one impartial doom,
Their glories closing in perpetual gloom,
Like the pale splendours of the evening, fade,
While night advances, to complete the shade.
REED, 'tis for thee we shed the unpurchased tear,
Bend o'er thy tomb, and plant our laurels there:
Your acts, your life, the noblest pile transcend,
And Virtue, patriot Virtue, mourns her friend,
Gone to those realms, where worth may claim regard,
And gone where virtue meets her best reward.
No single art engaged his vigorous mind,
In every scene his active genius shined:
Nature in him, in honour to our age,
At once composed the soldier and the sage--
Firm to his purpose, vigilant, and bold,
Detesting traitors, and despising gold,
He scorned all bribes from Britain's hostile throne
For all his country's wrongs he held his own.
REED, rest in peace: for time's impartial page
Shall raise the blush on this ungrateful age:
Long in these climes thy name shall flourish fair,
The statesman's pattern, and the poet's care;
Long in these climes thy memory shall remain,
And still new tributes from new ages gain,
Fair to the eye that injured honour rise--
Nor traitors triumph while the patriot dies.