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POEMS.

4.

On many a lone and lovely night
It sooth'd to gaze upon the sky;
For then I deem'd the heav'nly light

Shone sweetly on thy pensive eye:
And oft I thought at Cynthia's noon,
When sailing o'er the Ægean wave,
"Now Thyrza gazes on that moon-
Alas, it gleam'd upon her grave!

5.

When stretch'd on fever's sleepless bed, And sickness shrunk my throbbing veins, ""Tis comfort still," I faintly said,

"That Thyrza cannot know my pains: Like freedom to the time-worn slave,

A boon 'tis idle then to give;

Relenting nature vainly gave

My life, when Thyrza ceas'd to live.

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6.

My Thyrza's pledge in better days,
When love and life alike were new!
How different now thou meet'st my gaze!
How ting'd by time with sorrow's hue!

The heart that gave itself with thee
Is silent-ah, were mine as still!
Though cold as e'en the dead can be,
It feels, it sickens with the chill.

7.

Thou bitter pledge! thou mournful token!
Though painful, welcome to my breast!
Still, still, preserve that love unbroken,
Or break the heart to which thou'rt prest!
Time tempers love, but not removes,
More hallow'd when its hope is fled:
Oh! what are thousand living loves

To that which cannot quit the dead?

XV.

EUTHANASIA.

1.

WHEN Time, or soon or late, shall bring The dreamless sleep that lulls the dead, Oblivion! may thy languid wing

Wave gently o'er my dying bed!

2.

No band of friends or heirs be there,

To weep, or wish, the coming blow No maiden, with dishevell'd hair,

To feel, or feign, decorous woe.

:

3.

But silent let me sink to Earth,

With no officious mourners near: I would not mar one hour of mirth, Nor startle friendship with a fear.

4.

Yet Love, if Love in such an hour Could nobly check its useless sighs, Might then exert its latest power

In her who lives and him who dies.

5.

'Twere sweet, my Psyche! to the last Thy features still serene to see:

Forgetful of its struggles past,

E'en Pain itself should smile on thee.

6.

But vain the wish-for Beauty still

Will shrink, as shrinks the ebbing breath:

And woman's tears, produc'd at will,

Deceive in life, unman in death.

7.

Then lonely be my latest hour,

Without regret, without a groan!

For thousands Death hath ceas'd to lower, And pain been transient or unknown.

8.

“Ay, but to die, and go,” alas!

Where all have gone, and all must go!

To be the nothing that I was

Ere born to life and living woe!

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