Elegy on the Death of
William Payne Stewart
[William Payne Stewart and Bruce Alexander]
(from Robert Burns "Poems and Songs")
"My patriot son fills an untimely grave!"
With accents wild and lifted arms she cried;
"Low lies the hand that oft was stretch'd to save,
Low lies the heart that swell'd with honest pride."
A weeping country joins a widow's tear;
But ah! How hope is born but to expire!
Relentless fate has laid their guardian low.
My patriot falls, but shall he lie unsung,
while empty greatness saves a worthless name?
No; every muse shall join her tuneful tongue,
and future ages hear his growing fame.
"And I will join a mother's tender cares,
Through future times to make his virtues last;
That distant years may boast of other Stewarts!"
She said, and vanished with the sweeping blast.