Say, can the world one joyous thought bestow To Friendship, weeping at the couch of Woe? No! but a brighter soothes the last adieu,.... Souls of impassion'd mould, she speaks to you! Weep not, she says, at Nature's transient pain, Congenial spirits part to meet again !.... What plaintive sobs thy filial spirit drew, What sorrow chok'd thy long and last adieu, Daughter of Conrad ! when he heard his knell, And bade his country and his child farewel! Doom'd the lone isles of Sydney Cove to see, The martyr of his crimes, but true to thee. Thrice the sad father tore thee from his heart, And thrice return'd to bless thee, and to part; Thrice from his trembling lips he murmur'd low The plaint that own'd unutterable woe; Till Faith, prevailing o'er his sullen doom, As bursts the morn on night's unfathom'd gloom, Lur'd his dim eye to deathless hopes sublime, "And weep not thus, (he cried) young Ellenore! When time is o'er, and worlds have pass'd away; "Yet on the barren shore and stormy deep, One tedious watch is Conrad doom'd to weep; But when I gain the home without a friend, And press the uneasy couch where none attend, This last embrace, still cherish'd in my heart, Shall calm the struggling spirit ere it part ! Thy darling form shall seem to hover nigh, And hush the groan of life's last agony! "Farewel! when strangers lift thy father's bier, And place my nameless stone without a tear ; O'er friendless grief compassion shall awake, Inspiring thought, of rapture yet to be By artless friendship blest when life was new? Eternal Hope! when yonder spheres sublime Peal'd their first notes to sound the march of Time, Thy joyous youth began....but not to fade.... When all the sister planets have decay'd; G 1 |