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Madmoments: or First Verseattempts

By a Bornnatural. Addressed to the Lightheaded of Society at Large, by Henry Ellison

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MY BIRTHDAY.

My Birthday! even so: this very Day
This idle Heart began Life's eager Race:
Sixty Pulsations in a Momentsspace!
Is that the Tune to which it beats then?—aye,
But Hope and Fear have stirred it oft: their Sway
Is as a Tyrant's, and must leave some Trace
On the jarred Strings—Despondence too a Place
Has claimed in their wild Revels: oh Life's Way
Lies thro' a Tanglewood, where Fruits of Hue
Most seemingfair grow on Sin's Upastree,
Sighttempting, but within most rank: the true
Are often hard to find, and ill to see,
Not tricked out with a showy Rind to woo
The Sense, they must be sought for earnestly!