4.

'The better days of life were ours;

The worst can be but mine:

The sun that cheers, the storm that lowers, Shall never more be thine.

The silence of that dreamless sleep

I envy now too much to weep;

Nor need I to repine

That all those charms have pass'd away:

I might have watch'd through long decay.

5.

The flower in ripen'd bloom unmatch'd
Must fall the earliest prey,

Though by no hand untimely snatch'd,
The leaves must drop away:

And yet it were a greater grief

To watch it withering, leaf by leaf,

Than see it pluck'd to-day;

Since earthly eye but ill can bear

To trace the change to foul from fair.

6.

I know not if I could have borne

To see thy beauties fade;

The night that follow'd such a morn
Had worn a deeper shade :

Thy day without a cloud hath past,
And thou wert lovely to the last ;

Extinguish'd, not decay'd;

As stars that shoot along the sky

Shine brightest as they fall from high.

7.

As once I wept, if I could weep,
My tears might well be shed,
To think I was not near to keep
One vigil o'er thy bed,

To gaze-how fondly! on thy face,

To fold thee in a faint embrace,

Uphold thy drooping head;

And show that love, however vain,

Nor thou nor I can feel again.

8.

Yet how much less it were to gain,

Though thou hast left me free, The loveliest things that still remain, Than thus remember thee!

The all of thine that cannot die

Through dark and dread Eternity
Returns again to me,

And more thy buried love endears
Than aught, except its living years.

XVII.

STANZAS.

1.'

If sometimes in the haunts of men,

Thine image from my breast may fade,

The lonely hour presents again

The semblance of thy gentle shade:

And now that sad and silent hour.

Thus much of thee can still restore,

And sorrow unobserv'd may pour

The plaint she dare not speak before.

2.

Oh, pardon that in crowds awhile,
I waste one thought I owe to thee,
And, self-condemned, appear to smile,
Unfaithful to thy Memory!

Nor deem that memory less dear,
That then I seem not to repine,

I would not fools should overhear

One sigh that should be wholly thine.

3.

If not the Goblet pass unquaff'd,
It is not drain'd to banish care,
The cup must hold a deadlier draught
That brings a Lethe for despair;

And could Oblivion set my soul

From all her troubled visions free,

I'd dash to earth the sweetest bowl

That drown'd a single thought of thee.

4.

For wert thou vanish'd from my mind,
Where could my vacant bosom turn?
And who would then remain behind
To honour thine abandon'd Urn?
No, No-it is my sorrow's pride
That last dear duty to fulfil;
Though all the world forget beside,

"Tis meet that I remember still.

5.

For well I know, that such had been
Thy gentle care for him who now
Unmourn'd shall quit this mortal scene,
Where none regarded him, but thou:
And, Oh! I feel in that was given,
A blessing never meant for me;

Thou wert too like a dream of Heaven,

For earthly Love to merit thee.

March 14th, 1812.