To a Young Lady[;] With a Poem in the French Revolution

1. 1Much on my early youth I love to dwell,
2. 2Ere yet I bade that friendly dome farewell,
3. 3Where first, beneath the echoing cloisters pale,
4. 4I heard of guilt and wonder'd at the tale!
5. 5Yet though the hours flew by on careless wing,
6. 6Full heavily of Sorrow would I sing.
7. 7Aye as the Star of Evening flung its beam
8. 8In broken radiance on the wavy stream,
9. 9My soul amid the pensive twilight gloom
10. 10Mourn'd with the breeze, O Lee Boo! o'er thy tomb.
11. 11Where'er I wander'd, Pity still was near,
12. 12Breath'd from the heart and glisten'd in the tear:
13. 13No knell that toll'd but fill'd my anxious eye,
14. 14And suffering Nature wept that one should die!

1. 15Thus to sad sympathies I sooth'd my breast,
2. 16Calm, as the rainbow in the weeping West:
3. 17When slumbering Freedom roused by high Disdain
4. 18With giant Fury burst her triple chain!
5. 19Fierce on her front the blasting Dog-star glow'd;
6. 20Her banners, like a midnight meteor, flow'd;
7. 21Amid the yelling of the storm-rent skies!
8. 22She came, and scatter'd battles from her eyes!
9. 23Then Exultation waked the patriot fire
10. 24And swept with wild hand the Tyrtaean lyre:
11. 25Red from the Tyrant's wound I shook the lance,
12. 26And strode in joy the reeking plains of France!

1. 27Fallen is the Oppressor, friendless, ghastly, low,
2. 28And my heart aches, though Mercy struck the blow.
3. 29With wearied thought once more I seek the shade,
4. 30Where peaceful Virtue weaves the Myrtle braid.
5. 31And O! if Eyes whose holy glances roll,
6. 32Swift messengers, and eloquent of soul;
7. 33If Smiles more winning, and a gentler Mien
8. 34Than the love-wilder'd Maniac's brain hath seen
9. 35Shaping celestial forms in vacant air,
10. 36If these demand the empassion'd Poet's care--
11. 37If Mirth and soften'd Sense and Wit refined,
12. 38The blameless features of a lovely mind;
13. 39Then haply shall my trembling hand assign
14. 40No fading wreath to Beauty's saintly shrine.
15. 41Nor, Sara! thou these early flowers refuse--
16. 42Ne'er lurk'd the snake beneath their simple hues;
17. 43No purple bloom the Child of Nature brings
18. 44From Flattery's night-shade: as he feels he sings.