I'VE looked, and trusted, sighed, and loved my last! The dream hath vanished, the hot fever's past That parched my youth! Though cheerless was the matin of my years, And dim life's dawning through a vale of tears, Yet Hope, in ruth, With smile persuasive, evermore would say -- "Live on, live on! -- Expect Joy's summer day" -- Vain counsel, void of truth! Yes, to the world I've clung with fond embrace, And each succeeding day did more efface Its hollow joys, And friends died out around me every where, And I was left to the idle stare Of vagrant boys -- A land-mark on the ever-shifting tide Of fashion, folly, impudence, and pride, And ribald noise. Yes, I have lived, and lived until I knew The world ne'er alters its ungrateful hue, And glance malign; And though, at times, some chance-sown noble spirit Its wilderness a season may inherit, In want and pine, Yet these be weeded soon, and pass away, All unbefriended, to their funeral clay! Array thyself for flight, my soul, nor tarry -- Thou bird of glory ne'er wert doomed to marry A sphere so rude -- But to be mated with some hermit star, O'er heaven's soft azure keeping watch afar, In pulchritude: Uplift thy pinions, seek thy resting-place, Where kindred spirits long for thy embrace -- Dear brotherhood. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BRONX, 1818 by JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE SUMMER STORM by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL GREEK ARCHITECTURE by HERMAN MELVILLE THE ROSE (2) by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 63 by PHILIP SIDNEY THE SONG OF THE OLD MOTHER by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS LAURENCE BLOOMFIELD IN IRELAND: 1. LORD CRASHTON by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM |