Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/189

 178 BOYLE. In early days, when fancy cheats, A various wreath I wove, of laughing spring's luxuriant sweets, To deck ungrateful love The rose or thorn my numbers crown'd, As Venus smil'd, or Venus frown'd, But love and joy and all their train are flown; E'en langnid hope no more is mine, And I will sing of thee alone; Unless perchance the attributes of grief, The cypress bud and willow leaf, Their pale funereal foliage blend with thine. Hail, lovely blossom! thou can'st ease The wretchel victims of disease; Can'st close those weary eyes in gentle sleep, Which dever open but to weep; For oh! thy potent charm Can agonising grief disarm; Expel imperious memory from her seat, And bid the throbbing heart forget to beat. Soul-soothing plant, that can such blessings give, By thee the mourner bears to live! By thee the hopeless die! Oh, ever friendly to despair, Might sorrow's pallid votary dare, Without a crime that remedy implore, Which bids the spirit from its bondage Bly, I'd court thy palliative aid no more, No more I'd sue that thou shouldst spread Thy spell around my aching head But wonld conjure thee to impart Thy balsam for a broken heart! And by thy soft Lethean pow'r, Inestimable flower, Burst these terrestrial bonds, and other regions try She was the only daughter of Charles, Viscount Dun- garvan, eldest son of John, Earl of Cork, and born in the year 1758. She married, in October 1777, John O'Neill, . of Slanes Castle, in the county of Antrim, who was Esq created a peer of Ireland in November 1793, aud about two months after he had the misfortune to become a widower.