And panted for the truth it could not hear, Foil'd was perversion by that youthful mind, Which Flattery fool'd not-Baseness could not blind, Nor Fortune change-Pride raise-nor Passion bow, But wanting one sweet weakness-to forgive, But to the theme :-now laid aside too long If early habits-those false links, which bind And leave the venom there she did not find; To make a Pandemonium where she dwells, While mingling truth with falsehood-sneers with smiles— A thread of candour with a web of wiles; A plain blunt show of briefly-spoken seeming, To hide her bloodless heart's soul-harden'd scheming; A lip of lies-a face form'd to conceal; And, without feeling, mock at all who feel: Cased like the centipede in saffron mail, Or darker greenness of the scorpion's scale— Look on her features! and behold her mind Look on the picture! deem it not o'ercharged— Oh! wretch without a tear-without a thought, And turn thee howling in unpitied pain. May the strong curse of crush'd affections light Till thy hard heart be calcined into dust, And thy soul welter in its hideous crust. Oh, may thy grave be sleepless as the bed,— The widow'd couch of fire, that thou hast spread! Then, when thou fain wouldst weary Heaven with prayer, Look on thine earthly victims-and despair! то 1. WHEN all around grew drear and dark, 2. In that deep midnight of the mind, When dreading to be deem'd too kind, 3. When fortune changed-and love fled far, And hatred's shafts flew thick and fast, Thou wert the solitary star Which rose and set not to the last. |