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Dramatic Scenes

With Other Poems, Now First Printed. By Barry Cornwall [i.e. Bryan Waller Procter]. Illustrated

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TO THE LAMP.

In my youth I fed thee
With a learnèd oil;
In my manhood bred thee
To a life of toil.
What has been thy glory,
Under star or sun?
Tell me all thy story;
All that thou hast won.

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Nothing!—Thou didst slumber
Through the wastes of time,
Or but help to cumber
Leaves with idle rhyme.
All our poet-treasure,
Coin by coin, is strung.
Let us part:—The measure
Of the song is sung!