 | The Christian Scholar |  |
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III. OVID'S TRISTIA, OR LAMENTATIONS.
Yet moving was that exile and distressWhich sought in such sweet strains to find relief,
Fair as the hues on the decaying leaf;
Such pitiful, such touching tenderness,
Yet so unmann'd, so hopeless, spiritless;
These are the fruits of Passion, which so brief
In its enjoyments leaves an after-grief,
A loneliness of spirit, on which press
Life's accidents, with such a piercing gale
Of sorrow; that though blending thoughts of good,
And soothed awhile with its own plaintive tale,
Yet lies an undersound in that deep wail,
As of a soul which, by herself subdued,
Hath lost the inner Friend of solitude.
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