29.07.2007, 18:09
To a Friend
Bereave me not of these delightful dreams,
Which charmed my youth; or mid her gay career
Of hope, or when the faintly-paining tear
Sat sad on memory's cheek - though loftier themes
Await the awakened mind, to the high prize
Of wisdom, hardly earned with toil and pain,
Aspiring patient; yet on life's wide plain
Cast friendless, where unheard some sufferer cries
Hourly, and oft our road is lone and long,
'Twere not a crime, should we awhile delay,
Amid the sunny field, and happier they
Who, as they wander, woo the charm of song,
To cheer their path - till they forget to weep,
And the tired sense is hushed, and sinks to sleep.
Bereave me not of these delightful dreams,
Which charmed my youth; or mid her gay career
Of hope, or when the faintly-paining tear
Sat sad on memory's cheek - though loftier themes
Await the awakened mind, to the high prize
Of wisdom, hardly earned with toil and pain,
Aspiring patient; yet on life's wide plain
Cast friendless, where unheard some sufferer cries
Hourly, and oft our road is lone and long,
'Twere not a crime, should we awhile delay,
Amid the sunny field, and happier they
Who, as they wander, woo the charm of song,
To cheer their path - till they forget to weep,
And the tired sense is hushed, and sinks to sleep.