An Aspiration.

An Aspiration.

If after death I should remember’d be,
And I might chuse my own bright meed of fame,
This were my wish—At mention of my name
The eyes of childhood should light up with glee;
The mother, when in a most loving mood, 5
Should teach her child through life to copy me.
I fain would be a soul so pure that she
Could think of no one better; just too proud
To do a dirty action—meek and true,
Despising worldly wealth and rank and power, 10
With love of nature only for my dower,
At peace with God and man; I would subdue
All evil deeds and words and thoughts, and prove,
By a devoted life, worthy of children’s love.

George Markham Tweddell
p. 45 [in Miscellaneous Sonnets]
Ulverston Mirror, Aug. 8/85. Cleveland News, Oct. 17, 1885. The
Freemason’s Repository, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S., Feb., 1886