On Miss Hamilton

ENDOW'D with all that Fortune could bestow;
With brilliancy of wit, and beauty's glow,
FRANCISCA, rising to her fifteenth year,
Stood mid the virgin train without a peer:
Her conscious bosom throbb'd to virtue warm,
While diffidence still heighten'd ev'ry charm:
But Heav'n's decree forbad this Beauty's Queen
To act her part thro' beauty's short-liv'd scene:
A gradual illness on her figure prey'd,
And slowly, slowly sunk the fading Maid:
Torn from each wish to which her youth aspir'd,
Unfearing—uncomplaining—she expir'd:
Thus some faint lily to its mother-ground
In silence falls—while spring is blooming round.