Poems, Dialogues in Verse and Epigrams :: :: University of Virginia Library

Poems, Dialogues in Verse and Epigrams

By Walter Savage Landor: Edited with notes by Charles G. Crump

Landor, Walter Savage (1775-1864)

FIRST VOLUME DRAMATIC SCENES.

SECOND VOLUME POEMS AND EPIGRAMS.

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LXXVI.

[Wert thou but blind, O Fortune, then perhaps]

Wert thou but blind, O Fortune, then perhaps
Thou mightest always have avoided me;
For never voice of mine (young, middle-aged,
Or going down on tottering knee the shelf
That crumbles with us to the vale of years)

119

Call'd thee aside, whether thou rannest on
To others who expected, or didst throw
Into the sleeper's lap the unsought prize.
But blind thou art not; the refreshing cup
For which my hot heart thirsted, thou hast ever
(When it was full and at the lip) struck down.