Inscription for the Tomb of Mr. Hamilton

Pause here, and think: a monitory rhime

Demands one moment of thy fleeting time.

Consult Life's silent clock, thy bounding vein;

Seems it to say - Health, here, has long to rein?

Hast thou the vigour of thy youth? an eye

That beams delight? an heart untaught to sigh? -

Yet fear. Youth, ofttimes healthful and at ease,

Anticipates a day it never sees,

And many a tomb, like Hamilton's, aloud

Exclaims, "Prepare thee for an early shroud!"

Wriiten by William Cowper, 1788