 | Judith, Esther, and other poems |  |
TO Mrs. --- ---.
And canst thou love a wretched one,
Who from her earliest hour has known
The frowns of Destiny alone?
Who every morn,
However bright, awakes to tears,
And wastes the blossom of her years
Gloomy and lorn?
Who from her earliest hour has known
The frowns of Destiny alone?
Who every morn,
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And wastes the blossom of her years
Gloomy and lorn?
Whose bleeding heart, however warm
And scattered hopes, and fragile form,
Exposed to one perpetual storm,
Can ne'er requite
Thy more than friendship's tenderness—
That firm-fixt star that burns to bless
My deepening night.
And scattered hopes, and fragile form,
Exposed to one perpetual storm,
Can ne'er requite
Thy more than friendship's tenderness—
That firm-fixt star that burns to bless
My deepening night.
Lady! this heart were far more proud
Of what thy pity hath avowed,
Than if the incense of the crowd
Had met its flow;
Though Fate to deepest, worst, distress
Had dared to doom thy nobleness,
Without a glow.
Of what thy pity hath avowed,
Than if the incense of the crowd
Had met its flow;
Though Fate to deepest, worst, distress
Had dared to doom thy nobleness,
Without a glow.
Such souls as thine but beam more clear,
When life's rude wars are most severe,
As diamonds in the dark appear
In all their worth;
But pluck off Fortune's painted wing,
How many a crawling worm we fling,
On shrinking earth.
When life's rude wars are most severe,
As diamonds in the dark appear
In all their worth;
But pluck off Fortune's painted wing,
How many a crawling worm we fling,
On shrinking earth.
| Judith, Esther, and other poems | |