ON A CORNELIAN HEART WHICH WAS BROKEN. 1. ILL-FATED Heart! and can it be That thou shouldst thus be rent in twain? Have years of care for thine and thee 2. Yet precious seems each shatter'd part, [This poem and the following were written some years ago.] TO A YOUTHFUL FRIEND. 1. Few years have pass'd since thou and I Preserved our feelings long the same. But now, like me, too well thou know'st What trifles oft the heart recall; And those who once have loved the most Too soon forget they loved at all. 3. And such the change the heart displays, 4. If so, it never shall be mine To mourn the loss of such a heart; The fault was Nature's fault, not thine, Which made thee fickle as thou art. 5. As rolls the ocean's changing tide, 6. It boots not, that together bred, 7. And when we bid adieu to youth, 8. Ah, joyous season! when the mind 9. Not so in Man's maturer years, When interest sways our hopes and fears, 10. With fools in kindred vice the same, 11. Such is the common lot of man: Can we reverse the general plan, Nor be what all in turn must be? Through every turn of life hath been; Man and the world I so much hate, I care not when I quit the scene. 13. But thou, with spirit frail and light, 14. Alas! whenever folly calls Where parasites and princes meet, (For cherish'd first in royal halls, The welcome vices kindly greet,) 15. Ev'n now thou'rt nightly seen to add To join the vain, and court the proud. VOL. IV. 16. There dost thou glide from fair to fair, That taint the flowers they scarcely taste. 17. But say, what nymph will prize the flame To flit along from dame to dame, 18. What friend for thee, howe'er inclined, For friendship every fool may share? 19. In time forbear; amidst the throng Be something, any thing, but-mean. |