The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker Edited from the original manuscripts and annotated copies together with a prefatory notice and bibliography by Alfred Wallis |
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Farewell Address. |
 | The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker |  |
Farewell Address.
“Victoria Lœta.”—Hor.
'Twere vain to whisper what we all must feel,
The joy of heart, the proud success of zeal;
And vain the gratitude our lips could pay
For the high triumph we have won to-day!
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Around each youthful heart shall memory bind,
The gentler feelings of that heart to share,
And long to bloom in fadeless beauty there.
Dear will our triumph be, and doubly dear,
Since we have won our first-born laurels here;
Well may applause like yours the heart beguile,
And Fear be mute, when Judgment deigns to smile:
Proud is the conquest when the victors gain
A prize so often sought and sought in vain!
Take with you, then, in fervency, in truth,
The cheerful gratitude of guileless youth.
Cloth'd in no glozing phrase, no practis'd art,
The pure unmingled incense of the heart.
The high-born boast, “we did not vainly sue”
The generous praise our feeble efforts drew,
Speak to the soul, and justly, deeply tell,
Vain is our gratitude, and thus, farewell!
| The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker | |