Like freedom to the time-worn slave,
A boon 'tis idle then to give,
Relenting Nature vainly gave

My life, when Thyrza ceased to live!

6.

My Thyrza's pledge in better days,
When love and life alike were new!
How different now thou meet'st my gaze!
How tinged 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?

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, produced at will,

Deceive in life, unman in death.

7.

Then lonely be my latest hour,

Without regret, without a groan!

For thousands Death hath ceased to lower, And pain been transient or unknown.

8.

66

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!

9.

Count o'er the joys thine hours have seen, Count o'er thy days from anguish free, And know, whatever thou hast been,

"Tis something better not to be.

STANZAS.

"Heu quanto minus est cum reliquis versari quam tui meminisse !"

1.

AND thou art dead, as young and fair

As aught of mortal birth;

And form so soft, and charms so rare,
Too soon return'd to Earth!

Though Earth received them in her bed,

And o'er the spot the crowd may tread
In carelessness or mirth,

There is an eye which could not brook

A moment on that grave to look.

2.

I will not ask where thou liest low,

Nor gaze upon the spot;

There flowers or weeds at will may grow,

So I behold them not:

It is enough for me to prove

That what I loved and long must love

Like common earth can rot;