 | Poems |  |
129
LOVE AND TIME.
Let those lament thy flight,
Who find a new delight
In every hour that o'er them swiftly flies;
Whose hearts are free and strong
As some well-carolled song,
That charms the ear with ever fresh surprise.
Who find a new delight
In every hour that o'er them swiftly flies;
Whose hearts are free and strong
As some well-carolled song,
That charms the ear with ever fresh surprise.
To Wealth's stern devotee
Too fast the moments flee,
That gainful schemes to golden issues bring;
And Fame's deluded child,
By Glory's dream beguiled,
To twine his laurel wreath would stay thy wing.
Too fast the moments flee,
That gainful schemes to golden issues bring;
And Fame's deluded child,
By Glory's dream beguiled,
To twine his laurel wreath would stay thy wing.
They who have learned to bind
The warm and restless mind
In soft content to Pleasure's rosy car,
May sigh to hold thee back,
And linger on the track
That sends no lofty promise from afar.
The warm and restless mind
In soft content to Pleasure's rosy car,
May sigh to hold thee back,
And linger on the track
That sends no lofty promise from afar.
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But by the heart that turns
To those celestial urns
That with Love's dew forever overflow,
Uncherished are the years
No sympathy endears,
When all thy flowers droop beneath the snow.
To those celestial urns
That with Love's dew forever overflow,
Uncherished are the years
No sympathy endears,
When all thy flowers droop beneath the snow.
What holy spell is thine
To bless a lonely shrine,
Or wake glad echoes where no music flows?
Why to a barren thing
With senseless ardor cling,
Or gardens till that never yield a rose?
To bless a lonely shrine,
Or wake glad echoes where no music flows?
Why to a barren thing
With senseless ardor cling,
Or gardens till that never yield a rose?
Yet when devotion pure
Breeds courage to endure,
And grace to hallow the career of time,
When for another's joy
Thy moments we employ,
Like clouds by sunbeams lit, they grow sublime.
Breeds courage to endure,
And grace to hallow the career of time,
When for another's joy
Thy moments we employ,
Like clouds by sunbeams lit, they grow sublime.
The tender, true and brave
Disdain a gift to save
In which self only claims a weary part;
Nor would thy course delay
To pamper their frail clay,
And life consume in tricks of soulless art.
Disdain a gift to save
In which self only claims a weary part;
Nor would thy course delay
To pamper their frail clay,
And life consume in tricks of soulless art.
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Haste, then, till thou hast brought
The good so fondly sought,
And Love's bright harvest richly waves at last!
Then will I call thee mine,
And hail thee as divine,
The present cherish, nor lament the past.
The good so fondly sought,
And Love's bright harvest richly waves at last!
Then will I call thee mine,
And hail thee as divine,
The present cherish, nor lament the past.
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