HENCE, busy torturer, wherefore should mine eye Revert again to many a sorrow past? Hence, busy torturer, to the happy fly, Those who have never seen the sun o'ercast By one dark cloud, thy retrospective beam, Serene and soft, may on their bosoms gleam, As the last splendour of the summer sky. Let them look back on pleasure, ere they know To mourn its absence; let them contemplate The thorny windings of our mortal state, Ere unexpected bursts the cloud of woe; Stream not on me thy torch's baneful glow, Like the sepulchral lamp's funereal gloom, In darkness glimmering to disclose a tomb. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO THE PIOUS MEMORY OF THE YOUNG LADY MRS. ANNE KILLIGREW by JOHN DRYDEN LET NO BIRD SING by VERNE TAYLOR BENEDICT THE NAME OF LOVE by WILLIAM ROSE BENET THE COLLIER LADDIE by ROBERT BURNS THE BRANDYWINE by ELIZABETH MARGARET CHANDLER TO HER by CHARLES BADGER CLARK JR. |