Original - Duke Divinity School
Original - Duke Divinity School
Original - Duke Divinity School
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Dryden’s Miscellany<br />
Vol 3<br />
To a Young Lady Weeping 202<br />
By Mr Yalden<br />
Could mournful Sighs, or Floods of Tears, prevent<br />
The ills, Unhappy Men lament:<br />
Could all the Anguish of my Mind<br />
Remove my Cares, or make but Fortune kind;<br />
Soon I’d the grateful Tribute pay,<br />
And weep my troubled thoughts away:<br />
To Wealth and Pleasure every Sigh prefer,<br />
And more than Gems esteem each falling Tear.<br />
But, since insulting Cares are most inclin’d<br />
To triumph o’er th’ afflicted Mind;<br />
Since Sighs can yield us no Relief,<br />
And Tears, like fruitful Showers, but nourish Grief;<br />
Then cease, Fair Mourner, to complain,<br />
Nor lavish such bright Streams in vain,<br />
But still with chearful Thoughts thy Cares beguile,<br />
And tempt thy better Fortunes with a Smile.<br />
The generous Mind is by its Sufferings known,<br />
Which no Affliction tramples down;<br />
But when oppress’d will upward move,<br />
Spurn down its Clog of Cares, and soar above.<br />
Thus the young Royal Eagle tries<br />
On the Sun’s beams his tender Eyes,<br />
And, if he shrinks not at th’ offensive Light,<br />
He’s then for Empire fit, and takes his soaring Flight,<br />
Though Cares assault thy Breast on every side,<br />
Yet bravely stem th’ impetuous Tide:<br />
No tributary Tears to Fortune pay,<br />
202Thomas Yalden, “Against Immoderate Grief: To a Young Lady Weeping,” in Dryden, ed., Miscellanies,<br />
3:48–49.<br />
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