Madmoments: or First Verseattempts By a Bornnatural. Addressed to the Lightheaded of Society at Large, by Henry Ellison |
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 | II. |
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ON BEING TOLD I COULD NOT LIVE LONG. |
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 | Madmoments: or First Verseattempts |  |
ON BEING TOLD I COULD NOT LIVE LONG.
Thou err'st! thou know'st not how, how many YearsI live in each brief Day, nay, in each Hour:
Such is Imagination's godlike Power!
Life, measured but by fretting Hopes and Fears
Of Earth's vain Goods, dark, troubled, brief appears:
Its longest Joy, the Smelling at a Flower:
Its Griefs, like Shadows lengthening on before
And darkening the Tomb, which far off rears
Its melancholy Goal! but there is, yea!
There is an higher measure, and one Day
With Reference to this holds Centuries:
Thus the good God, if to me he denies
Long outward Life, still cheers me on my Way
By doubling that within thro' my own Faculties!
| Madmoments: or First Verseattempts | |