On Observing some names of little note recorded in the Biographia Britannica (September, 1780)

Oh, fond attempt to give a deathless lot

To names ignoble, born to be forgot!

In vain, recorded in historic page,

They court the notice of a future age:

Those twinkling tiny lustres of the land

Drop one by one from Fame's neglecting hand;

Lethæan gulfs receive them as they fall,

And dark oblivion soon absorbs them all........"

The Poems of William Cowper. Ed. By John S. Memes, LL.D. Third Edition. (London: Ball, Arnold, & Co. Paternoster Row. A. & C. Black, Edinbuzrgh. 1840), p.350'