But wherefore should my courage fail, Why need I through this gloomy vale And kindly would they welcome me: O then, though fainting and distressed I will my way pursue: There is a home, there is a rest, There is a heaven in view. September 23, 1809. TO A BROTHER, ON HIS BIRTH-DAY. DEAR brother, while weaving your birth-day address, I cannot but wish you were here; For what the true feeling of love can express, So well as a smile and a tear? The tear, should it fall on the track of my pen, May wash its effusions away : The smile give me credit till Christmas, for then I know I can promise to pay. And why should I try in a song to enclose A sister's affection, the hope and the fear When a brother sets out on his stormy career, Then why any more of such rhyming as this, Ah why, when a smile, and a tear, and a kiss, October 9, 1809. TO MISS E. F. ON HER BIRTH-DAY. HAIL, dearest Eliza! and hail to the morn That smiled on your infantile charms : Ah! were I not fettered at distance forlorn, I would tell all my joy in your arms. If, true to affection, some child of the grove Though if any mortal those heavenly things With beings angelic might share, Eliza had surely been furnished with wings, To bear her light form on the air. But seeing the Fates, to our friendship averse, Permit me, my love, in affectionate verse, To greet the return of the day. And since I no train of kind genii can boast, I send a rude sprite, in the form of the post, Accept then, my love, from my heart as they flow, Of wishes the kindest and best; For thousand sweet pleasures I fain would bestow, To find an abode in your breast. Yet what are the blessings that never have graced, Eliza, thy favoured abode ? Not virtue, or beauty, refinement, or taste, No: these are already bestowed. But sorrow too often that bosom invites Which soonest and longest will bleed ; And sickness, the epicure, chiefly delights On lilies and roses to feed. Yet still she can smile and rejoice on her way! They cause the fair casket to fade and decay, Till, freed from a dwelling of darkness and woe, All brilliant with glory for ever to glow, A sun in unchangeable skies. Then, might my dim star with a tremulous ray Ascend to that heavenly sphere, That friendship shall flourish which lightens the way Of my wearisome pilgrimage here. January 15, 1808. TO MR. CSENIOR, WITH A DRAWING. My harp, though out of tune so long, I will not aim at lofty song, And will you not the tribute own: May not affection's gentle tone Be soothing to your ear? |