University of Virginia Library


110

TO C---.

[1817.]

I plant no roses on THY grave,
To mock decay with fragrant breath;
Or gaudy hues in triumph wave
O'er the pale form that wastes beneath.
No laurel o'er that form shall tower,
To boast a life outlasting thine;
And vaunt its leaf's perennial power,
In contrast with thy swift decline.
The sculptured stone the proud uprear,
The venal verse by flattery paid,
Were odious to thy living ear,
Nor shall they shame thy parted shade.

111

Thy name thyself, in idle hour,
Graved on the rind of yonder tree;
And still through sun and storm and shower,
That sylvan record stands of thee.
Naught else, save but the tear, the sigh
That ever must thy loss deplore,
Till thine own voice in realms on high,
Shall bid the mourner mourn no more!