Why, let the world unfeeling frown,
Must I fond Nature's claim disown?
Ah, no- - though moralists reprove,
I hail thee, dearest child of love,
Fair cherub, pledge of youth and joy —
A Father guards thy birth, my Boy!

Oh, 't will be sweet in thee to trace,
Ere age has wrinkled o'er my face,
Ere half my glass of life is run,
At once a brother and a son;
And all my wane of years employ
In justice done to thee, my Boy!

Although so young thy heedless sire,
Youth will not damp parental fire;
And, wert thou still less dear to me,
While Helen's form revives in thee,
The breast, which beat to former joy,
Will ne'er desert its pledge, my Boy!

1807. [First published 1830.]

FAREWELL! IF EVER FONDEST PRAYER.

FAREWELL! if ever fondest prayer

For others weal avail'd on high, Mine will not all be lost in air,

'T were vain to speak, to weep, to sigh;
Oh! more than tears of blood can tell,
When wrung from guilt's expiring eye,
Are in that word- Farewell!- Farewell!

These lips are mute, these eyes are dry;
But in my breast and in my brain,
Awake the pangs that pass not by,

The thought that ne'er shall sleep again.
My soul nor deigns nor dares complain,
Though grief and passion there rebel;
I only know we loved in vain —

I only feel Farewell!- - Farewell!

1808.

BRIGHT BE THE PLACE OF THY SOUL.

BRIGHT be the place of thy soul!
No lovelier spirit than thine
E'er burst from its mortal control
In the orbs of the blessed to shine.

On earth thou wert all but divine,
As thy soul shall immortally be;
And our sorrow may cease to repine,

When we know that thy God is with thee.

Light be the turf of thy tomb!
May its verdure like emeralds be:
There should not be the shadow of gloom
In aught that reminds us of thee.

Young flowers and an evergreen tree
May spring from the spot of thy rest:
But nor cypress nor yew let us see;
For why should we mourn for the blest?

WHEN WE TWO PARTED.

WHEN We two parted

In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted

To sever for years,

Pale grew thy cheek, and cold,

Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
Sorrow to this.

The dew of the morning
Sunk chill on my brow
It felt like the warning
Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,
And light is thy fame;
I hear thy name spoken,

1808.

FEW years have pass'd since thou and I
Were firmest friends, at least in name;
And childhood's gay sincerity

Preserved our feelings long the same.

[This copy of verses, and that which follows, originally appeared in the volume published, in 1809, by Mr. (now Sir John) Hobhouse, under the title of "Imitations and Translations, toge her with Original Poems," and bearing the modest epigraphJos hæc novimus esse nihil."]

But now,

like me, too well thou know'st What trifles oft the heart recall; And those who once have loved the most Too soon forget they loved at all.

And such the change the heart displays,
So frail is early friendship's reign,
A month's brief lapse, perhaps a day's,
Will view thy mind estranged again.

If

So,

it never shall be mine'

To mourn the loss of such a heart; The fault was Nature's fault, not thine, Which made thee fickle as thou art.

As rolls the ocean's changing tide,
So human feelings ebb and flow;
And who would in a breast confide
Where stormy passions ever glow?

It boots not that, together bred,

Our childish days were days of joy : My spring of life has quickly fled; Thou, too, hast ceased to be a boy.

And when we bid adieu to youth, Slaves to the specious world's control, We sigh a long farewell to truth;

That world corrupts the noblest soul.

Ah, joyous season! when the mind

Dares all things boldly but to lie; When thought ere spoke is unconfined,