The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed With a Memoir by the Rev. Derwent Coleridge. Fourth Edition. In Two Volumes |
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STANZAS
WRITTEN IN THE FIRST LEAF OF LILLIAN. |
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 | The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed |  |
275
STANZAS WRITTEN IN THE FIRST LEAF OF LILLIAN.
Talk not to me of learned dust,
Of reasoning and renown,
Of withering wreath and crumbling bust,
Torn book and tattered gown;
Oh Wisdom lives in Folly's ring,
And beards, thank Heaven, are not the thing!
Of reasoning and renown,
Of withering wreath and crumbling bust,
Torn book and tattered gown;
Oh Wisdom lives in Folly's ring,
And beards, thank Heaven, are not the thing!
Then let me live a long romance,
And learn to trifle well;
And write my motto, “Vive la danse,”
And “Vive la bagatelle!”
And give all honour, as is fit,
To sparkling eyes, and sparkling wit.
And learn to trifle well;
And write my motto, “Vive la danse,”
And “Vive la bagatelle!”
And give all honour, as is fit,
To sparkling eyes, and sparkling wit.
And let me deem, when Sophs condemn
And Seniors burn my lays,
That some bright eyes will smile on them,
And some kind hearts will praise;
And thus my little book shall be
A mine of pleasant thoughts to me.
And Seniors burn my lays,
That some bright eyes will smile on them,
And some kind hearts will praise;
And thus my little book shall be
A mine of pleasant thoughts to me.
276
And we, perchance, may meet no more,
For other accents sound,
And darker prospects spread before,
And colder hearts come round;
And cloistered walk and grated pane
Must wear their wonted gloom again.
For other accents sound,
And darker prospects spread before,
And colder hearts come round;
And cloistered walk and grated pane
Must wear their wonted gloom again.
But those who meet, as we have met,
In frolic and in laughter,—
O dream not they can e'er forget
The thoughts that linger after,
That parted friend and faded scene
Can be as if they ne'er had been:
In frolic and in laughter,—
O dream not they can e'er forget
The thoughts that linger after,
That parted friend and faded scene
Can be as if they ne'er had been:
No! I shall miss that merry smile
When thou hast left me lone;
And listen in the silent aisle
For that remembered tone;
And look up to the lattice high
For beckoning hand and beaming eye.
When thou hast left me lone;
And listen in the silent aisle
For that remembered tone;
And look up to the lattice high
For beckoning hand and beaming eye.
And thou perhaps, when years are gone,
Wilt turn these pages over,
And waste one idle thought upon
A rambling rhyming rover,
And deem the Poet and his line
Both wild, both worthless,—and both thine!
Wilt turn these pages over,
And waste one idle thought upon
A rambling rhyming rover,
And deem the Poet and his line
Both wild, both worthless,—and both thine!
Trin. Coll., Cambridge,
July 8, 1823.
| The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed | |