 | Poems descriptive, dramatic, legendary and contemplative |  |
[I. Ambition owns no friend yet be thou mine]
Ambition owns no friend yet be thou mine!—I have not much to win thee,—yet if song
Born of affection may one name prolong,
My lay shall seek to give a life to thine.
Let this requite thee for the honoring thought
That has forgiven me each capricious mood;
Dealt gently with my phrensies, school'd my blood,
And still with love my sad seclusion sought.
And when the gray sod rises o'er my breast,
Be thou the guardian of my deeds and name,
Defend me from the foes who hunt my fame,—
And, when thou show'st its purity, attest
Mine eye was ever on the sun, and bent,
Where clouds and difficult rocks make steep the great ascent.
| Poems descriptive, dramatic, legendary and contemplative | |