Minor Poems, including Napoleon :: :: University of Virginia Library

“A Birth-day!” — what a joyful sound
Those words possess'd to boyhood's ear,
When Fancy shed her sunshine round;
And Hope, the flatterer, still was near,
With balm for every trifling wound,
A smile for every tear!

II

Then life was sweet: the world, unknown,
A fairy landscape bright and gay;
Each voice, too, seem'd like Friendship's tone,
Or Love's more fascinating lay;
And Time — a playmate of my own,
To sport with by the way.

273

III

What is a Birth-day now? — A sound
To shake e'en manhood's sterner heart;
Fancy no sunshine sheds around,
And Hope has lost her healing art,
While from the world's enchanted ground
Its brighter hues depart.

IV

Pain's barbed shafts mock Friendship's shield,
Love's smile can ill dark tempests brave,
Time's scythe no longer is conceal'd,
And Life has little left to crave;
Hope, Fancy, Friendship, Love must yield
Their votary to the grave.

V

I speak, 'tis true, of passing things,
Which appertain to Time and Earth —
Happy is he whose spirit clings
To thoughts of more enduring worth,
To whom the day of death but brings
More joy than that of birth!