Poem by William Cowper

On the Burning of Lord Mansfield's Library

On the Burning of Lord Mansfield's Library, Together 
with his MSS. by the Mob, in the Month of June 1780.

So then - the Vandals of our isle,
Sworn foes to sense and law,
Have burnt to dust a nobler pile
Than ever Roman saw!

And Murray sighs o'er Pope and Swift,
And many a treasure more,
The well-judged purchase and the gift
That graced his lettered store.


Their
pages mangled, burnt, and torn,
The loss was
his alone;

But ages yet to come shall mourn
The burning of
his own. 

1. Olney Hymn 4. Jehovah-Nissi. The Lord My Banner
2. See Where the Thames, the Purest Stream
3. An Apology for Not Showing Her What I Had Wrote
4. Olney Hymn 55. The Heart Healed and Changed by Mercy
5. An Ode, on Reading Mr. Richardson's History of Sir Charles Grandison

Print

2321 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version