To a Friend in Answer to a Melancholy Letter

1. 1Away, those cloudy looks, that labouring sigh,
2. 2The peevish offspring of a sickly hour!
3. 3Nor meanly thus complain of Fortune's power,
4. 4When the blind Gamester throws a luckless die.

1. 5Yon setting Sun flashes a mournful gleam
2. 6Behind those broken clouds, his stormy train:
3. 7To-morrow shall the many-colour'd main
4. 8In brightness roll beneath his orient beam!

1. 9Wild, as the autumnal gust, the hand of Time
2. 10Flies o'er his mystic lyre: in shadowy dance
3. 11The alternate groups of Joy and Grief advance
4. 12Responsive to his varying strains sublime!

1. 13Bears on its wing each hour a load of Fate;
2. 14The swain, who, lull'd by Seine's mild murmurs, led
3. 15His weary oxen to their nightly shed,
4. 16To-day may rule a tempest-troubled State.

1. 17Nor shall not Fortune with a vengeful smile
2. 18Survey the sanguinary Despot's might,
3. 19And haply hurl the Pageant from his height
4. 20Unwept to wander in some savage isle.

1. 21There shiv'ring sad beneath the tempest's frown
2. 22Round his tir'd limbs to wrap the purple vest;
3. 23And mix'd with nails and beads, an equal jest!
4. 24Barter for food, the jewels of his crown.