University of Virginia Library


52

COMPANION OF MY YOUTHFUL SPORTS.

Companion of my youthful sports,
From love and friendship torn,
A victim to the pride of courts,
Thy early death I mourn.
Unshrouded on a foreign shore,
Thou 'rt mould'ring in the clay,
While here thy weeping friends deplore
Corunna's fatal day.
How glows the youthful warrior's mind
With thoughts of laurels won!
But ruthless ruin lurks behind,
“And marks him for her own.”
How soon the meteor ray is shed,
“That lures him to his doom,”
And dark oblivion veils his head
In everlasting gloom!