University of Virginia Library

O! could I on my waking brain impose,
Or but forget at least my present woes!
Forget 'em—how!—each rattling coach suggests
The loath'd ideas of the crouding guests.
To visit—were to publish my disgrace;
To meet the spleen in ev'ry other place;
To join old maids and dowagers forlorn;
And be at once their comfort and their scorn!

295

For once to read—with this distemper'd brain,
Ev'n modern novels lend their aid in vain.
My Mandoline—what place can music find
Amid the discord of my restless mind?