University of Virginia Library


93

BANKRUPTCY OF THE HEART.

Let infamy cover the dastard, that meanly
Can sport with the peace of an innocent maid,
For there is no pang which the heart feels so keenly
As finding its confidence basely betrayed.
No power can retrive such a wide desolation,
As spreads o'er the face of the mental creation,
When once a sincere trusting heart's adoration
Has been with a cold-blooded treason repaid.
For woman, dear woman, ne'er traffics by measure,
But risks her whole heart, without counting the cost;
And if the dear youth whom she trusts with the treasure
Be shipwrecked, or faithless, her capital's lost.
For all she was worth, was her stock of affection,
And bankruptcy follows, with sad retrospection,
And nothing can ever remove the dejection
That preys on a bosom whose prospects are crossed.