1 Shock's fate I mourn; poor Shock is now no more, <br />2 Ye Muses mourn, ye chamber-maids deplore. <br />3 Unhappy Shock! yet more unhappy fair, <br />4 Doom'd to survive thy joy and only care! <br />5 Thy wretched fingers now no more shall deck, <br />6 And tie the fav'rite ribbon round his neck; <br />7 No more thy hand shall smooth his glossy hair, <br />8 And comb the wavings of his pendent ear. <br />9 Yet cease thy flowing grief, forsaken maid; <br />10 All mortal pleasures in a moment fade: <br />11 Our surest hope is in an hour destroy'd, <br />12 And love, best gift of heav'n, not long enjoy'd. <br /> <br />13 Methinks I see her frantic with despair, <br />14 Her streaming eyes, wrung hands, and flowing hair <br />15 Her Mechlen pinners rent the floor bestrow, <br />16 And her torn fan gives real signs of woe. <br />17 Hence Superstition, that tormenting guest, <br />18 That haunts with fancied fears the coward breast; <br />19 No dread events upon his fate attend, <br />20 Stream eyes no more, no more thy tresses rend. <br />21 Tho' certain omens oft forewarn a state, <br />22 And dying lions show the monarch's fate; <br />23 Why should such fears bid Celia's sorrow rise? <br />24 For when a lap-dog falls no lover dies. <br /> <br />25 Cease, Celia, cease; restrain thy flowing tears, <br />26 Some warmer passion will dispel thy cares. <br />27 In man you'll find a more substantial bliss, <br />28 More grateful toying, and a sweeter kiss. <br /> <br />29 He's dead. Oh lay him gently in the ground! <br />30 And may his tomb be by this verse renown'd. <br />31 Here Shock, the pride of all his kind, is laid; <br />32 Who fawn'd like man, but ne'er like man betray'd.<br /><br />John Gay<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-elegy-on-a-lap-dog/
