Broadside entitled 'Groans from the Dungeon'

Transcription

G   R   O   A    N   S

FROM THE                                                      

D U N G E O N;         

O R,

The sorrowful Lamentation of PETER GRAY, now under Sentence of Death, in the
Tolbooth of this City.

I.

MORTALS on various projects bent,

Attend the mournful cry,
Nor scorn the melancholy plaint

Of him condemn'd to die.

II.

From dreary walls, where darkness reigns,

Nor hope, nor joy appear,
In pity hear my mournful fate,

And grant a gen'rous tear.

III.

In vain, with retrospective view,

1 think on days that's past;
Nought now remains?an awful thought,

But how to meet my last.

IV.

Alas! how happy to have spent

In honesty my days,
Till death, the latest friend of many

Had clos'd my peaceful eyes.

V.

But ah! what death awaits my view!

No fame attends my doom ;
Disgrace and pain, companions foul,

Shall lead me to the tomb.

VI.

forc'd from the stage of life, I fly
To scenes where shine no light,

At noon my sun for ever hid
In clouds of endless night.

VII.

Torn from the arms of her I love,

My true and faithful wife-
May HE who can, direct and soothe

Thy solitary life,

VIII.

Nor you, my children dear, despair,

But trust that Father kind,
Who makes you his peculiar care,

When you are left behind.

IX.

With shame, my children, I advise-

Mark your poor father's fate,
And shun the road whose baneful path

Will lead yon to his state.

X.

Condemn'd by man, in fetters strong,

Rejected here I lie,
Till that dread hour which ends my life,

And now is drawing nigh.

XI.

To die! how can I bear the thought

How meet that Judge Divine,
Before whose penetrating eye

Lies naked all my sin.

XII.

And is there then no mercy left?
No mercy from above!

O God, in mercy thou delight'st-

Thy character is love.

XIII.

In pity, then, regard my state,

Let beams of mercy dart
Refulgent, thro' this dreary cell

To chear the sinner's heart.

XIV.

And when my soul must leave this clay,

Resign'd may it be;
Mount upward on thy mercy's wing,

And ever live with thee.

Printed by Thomas Duncan, Saltmarket, Glasgow.

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