To Edward Noel Long, Esq.

"Nil ego contulerim jucundo sanus amico."

-HORACE.

1. 1Dear LONG, in this sequester'd scene,
2. 2While all around in slumber lie,
3. 3The joyous days, which ours have been
4. 4Come rolling fresh on Fancy's eye;
5. 5Thus, if, amidst the gathering storm,
6. 6While clouds the darken'd noon deform,
7. 7Yon heaven assumes a varied glow,
8. 8I hail the sky's celestial bow,
9. 9Which spreads the sign of future peace,
10. 10And bids the war of tempests cease.
11. 11Ah! though the present brings but pain,
12. 12I think those days may come again;
13. 13Or if, in melancholy mood,
14. 14Some lurking envious fear intrude,
15. 15To check my bosom's fondest thought,
16. 16And interrupt the golden dream,
17. 17I crush the fiend with malice fraught,
18. 18And, still, indulge my wonted theme.
19. 19Although we ne'er again can trace,
20. 20In Granta's vale, the pedant's lore,
21. 21Nor through the groves of Ida chase
22. 22Our raptured visions, as before;
23. 23Though Youth has flown on rosy pinion,
24. 24And Manhood claims his stern dominion,
25. 25Age will not every hope destroy,
26. 26But yield some hours of sober joy.

1. 27Yes, I will hope that Time's broad wing
2. 28Will shed around some dews of spring:
3. 29But, if his scythe must sweep the flowers
4. 30Which bloom among the fairy bowers,
5. 31Where smiling Youth delights to dwell,
6. 32And hearts with early rapture swell;
7. 33If frowning Age, with cold controul,
8. 34Confines the current of the soul,
9. 35Congeals the tear of Pity's eye,
10. 36Or checks the sympathetic sigh,
11. 37Or hears, unmov'd, Misfortune's groan
12. 38And bids me feel for self alone;
13. 39Oh! may my bosom never learn
14. 40To soothe its wonted heedless flow;
15. 41Still, still, despise the censor stern,
16. 42But ne'er forget another's woe.
17. 43Yes, as you knew me in the days,
18. 44O'er which Remembrance yet delays,
19. 45Still may I rove untutor'd, wild,
20. 46And even in age, at heart a child.

1. 47Though, now, on airy visions borne,
2. 48To you my soul is still the same.
3. 49Oft has it been my fate to mourn,
4. 50And all my former joys are tame:
5. 51But, hence! ye hours of sable hue!
6. 52Your frowns are gone, my sorrows o'er:
7. 53By every bliss my childhood knew,
8. 54I'll think upon your shade no more.
9. 55Thus, when the whirlwind's rage is past,
10. 56And caves their sullen roar enclose
11. 57We heed no more the wintry blast,
12. 58When lull'd by zephyr to repose.
13. 59Full often has my infant Muse,
14. 60Attun'd to love her languid lyre;
15. 61But, now, without a theme to choose,
16. 62The strains in stolen sighs expire.
17. 63My youthful nymphs, alas! are flown;
18. 64E----is a wife, and C----a mother,
19. 65And Carolina sighs alone,
20. 66And Mary's given to another;
21. 67And Cora's eye, which roll'd on me,
22. 68Can now no more my love recall--
23. 69In truth, dear LONG, 'twas time to flee--
24. 70For Cora's eye will shine on all.
25. 71And though the Sun, with genial rays,
26. 72His beams alike to all displays,
27. 73And every lady's eye's a sun,
28. 74These last should be confin'd to one.
29. 75The soul's meridian don't become her,
30. 76Whose Sun displays a general summer!
31. 77Thus faint is every former flame,
32. 78And Passion's self is now a name;
33. 79As, when the ebbing flames are low,
34. 80The aid which once improv'd their light,
35. 81And bade them burn with fiercer glow,
36. 82Now quenches all their sparks in night;
37. 83Thus has it been with Passion's fires,
38. 84As many a boy and girl remembers,
39. 85While all the force of love expires,
40. 86Extinguish'd with the dying embers.

1. 87But now, dear LONG, 'tis midnight's noon,
2. 88And clouds obscure the watery moon,
3. 89Whose beauties I shall not rehearse,
4. 90Describ'd in every stripling's verse;
5. 91For why should I the path go o'er
6. 92Which every bard has trod before?
7. 93Yet ere yon silver lamp of night
8. 94Has thrice perform'd her stated round,
9. 95Has thrice retrac'd her path of light,
10. 96And chas'd away the gloom profound,
11. 97I trust, that we, my gentle Friend,
12. 98Shall see her rolling orbit wend,
13. 99Above the dear-lov'd peaceful seat,
14. 100Which once contain'd our youth's retreat;
15. 101And, then, with those our childhood knew,
16. 102We'll mingle in the festive crew;
17. 103While many a tale of former day
18. 104Shall wing the laughing hours away;
19. 105And all the flow of souls shall pour
20. 106The sacred intellectual shower,
21. 107Nor cease, till Luna's waning horn,
22. 108Scarce glimmers through the mist of Morn.