VERSES LEFT BY MR. POPE, ON HIS LYING IN THE SAME BED WHICH WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER, USED AT ATTERBURY, A SEAT OF THE DUKE OF ARGYLE'S, IN OXFORDSHIRE, JULY IX, MDCCXXXIX.
With no poetic ardor fir'd,
I press the bed where Wilmot lay;
That here he lov'd, or here expir'd,
Begets no numbers grave or gay.
But in thy roof, Argyle, are bred
Such thoughts as prompt the brave to lie,
Stretch'd out in honour's nobler bed,
Beneath a nobler roof, the sky.
Such flames as high in patriots burn,
Yet stoop to bless a child, or wife;
And such as wicked kings may mourn,
When freedom is more dear than life.
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, was a marvellous poet. He lived at Adderbury House between 1667 and 1680.
Poetry Atlas has many other poems about Oxfordshire.