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ON TWO LOVERS STRUCK DEAD BY LIGHTNING - 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.


ON TWO LOVERS STRUCK DEAD BY LIGHTNING

John Hughes and Sarah Drew. See Pope’s letter to Lady Mary written in September, 1718.

  • I

  • When Eastern lovers feed the Funeral Fire,
  • On the same pile their faithful Fair expire;
  • Here pitying Heav’n that Virtue mutual found,
  • And blasted both, that it might neither wound.
  • Hearts so sincere th’ Almighty saw well pleas’d,
  • Sent his own lightning, and the victims seiz’d.
  • II

  • Think not by rig’rous judgment seiz’d,
  • A pair so faithful could expire;
  • Victims so pure Heav’n saw well pleas’d,
  • And snatch’d them in celestial fire.
  • III

  • Live well, and fear no sudden fate:
  • When God calls Virtue to the grave,
  • Alike ’t is Justice, soon or late,
  • Mercy alike to kill or save.
  • Virtue unmov’d can hear the call,
  • And face the flash that melts the ball.

EPITAPH

The subject is supposed to be John Gay.

  • Well, then, poor G— lies underground!
  • So there ’s an end of honest Jack—
  • So little justice here be found,
  • ’T is ten to one he ’ll ne’er come back.

AN ESSAY ON MAN[ ]

[Page 137.]An Essay on Man.Epistle I.