The Third Volume of the Works of Mr. William Congreve containing Poems upon Several Occasions |
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To a CANDLE.
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 | The Third Volume of the Works of Mr. William Congreve |  |
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To a CANDLE.
ELEGY.
Thou watchful Taper, by whose silent Light,I lonely pass the melancholly Night;
Thou faithful Witness of my secret Pain,
To whom alone I venture to complain;
O learn with me, my hopeless Love to moan;
Commiserate a Life so like thy own.
Like thine, my Flames to my Destruction turn,
Wasting that Heart, by which supply'd they burn.
Like thine, my Joy and Suffering they display,
At once, are Signs of Life, and Symptoms of Decay,
And as thy fearful Flames the Day decline,
And only during Night presume to shine;
Their humble Rays not daring to aspire
Before the Sun, the Fountain of their Fire:
So mine, with conscious Shame, and equal Awe,
To Shades obscure and Solitude withdraw;
Nor dare their Light before her Eyes disclose,
From whose bright Beams their Being first arose.
| The Third Volume of the Works of Mr. William Congreve | |