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TO MRS. M. B. ON HER BIRTHDAY - Alexander Pope, The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope [1903]

Edition used:

The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Cambridge Edition, ed. Henry W. Boynton (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1903).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO MRS. M. B. ON HER BIRTHDAY

Written to Martha Blount in 1723. Lines 5-10 were elsewhere adapted for a versified celebration of his own birthday, and for an epitaph on a suicide!

    • Oh, be thou blest with all that Heav’n can send,
    • Long Health, long Youth, long Pleasure, and a Friend:
    • Not with those Toys the female world admire,
    • Riches that vex, and Vanities that tire.
    • With added years if Life bring nothing new,
    • But, like a sieve, let ev’ry blessing thro’,
    • Some joy still lost, as each vain year runs o’er,
    • And all we gain, some sad Reflection more;
    • Is that a birthday? ’t is alas! too clear,
    • ’T is but the funeral of the former year.
    • Let Joy or Ease, let Affluence or Content,
    • And the gay Conscience of a life well spent,
    • Calm ev’ry thought, inspirit ev’ry grace,
    • Glow in thy heart, and smile upon thy face.
    • Let day improve on day, and year on year,
    • Without a Pain, a Trouble, or a Fear;
    • Till Death unfelt that tender frame destroy,
    • In some soft dream, or extasy of joy,
    • Peaceful sleep out the Sabbath of the Tomb,
    • And wake to raptures in a life to come.