The Kentucky Gazette

OH! Poverty! of pale, consumptive hue,
If thou delight'st to haunt me still in view:
If still thy presence must my steps attend,
At least continue what thou art—my friend!
Whene'er example bids me be unjust,
False to my word—or faithless to my trust;
And shun the world to find repose with thee:
Bid me the baneful error quickly see,
When vice to wealth, would turn my partial eye,
Or interest shut my ear to sorrow's cry,
My foe to flatterer desert my friend :
Or courtier's custom would my reason bend,
Oppose, kind Poverty, thy temper'd shield.
If giddy fortune e'er return again,
And bear me off, unvanquished, from the field.
With all her idle, restless, wanton train,
Her magic glass, should false ambition hold,
Or av'rice bid me put my trust in gold;
To my relief, thou virtuous goddess haste,
And with thee bring thy daughters ever chaste:
Health, Liberty and Wisdom—sisters bright!
Whose charms can make the worst condition
light,
Beneath the hardest fate, the mind can cheer,
Can heal affliction, and disarm despair !
In chains, in torments, pleasure can bequeath,
And dress in smiles, the tyrant hour of death!