Life
"What is this world?thy school,
O misery!"Our only lesson is to learn to suffer." -
NG.
VE, thou sportive fickle boy,
Source of anguish, child of joy,
Ever woundingever smiling,
Soothing still, and still beguiling;
What are all thy boasted treasures,
Tender sorrows, transient pleasures?
Anxious hopes, and jealous fears,
NG
RS, and
NG
RS. What is
IP'S soothing name?
But a shad'wy, vap'rish flame;
Fancy's balm for ev'ry wound,
Ever sought, but rarely found;
What is
TY ? but a flow'r,
Blooming, fading in an hour;
Deck'd with brightest tints at morn,
At twilight with'ring on a thorn;
Like the gentle Rose of spring,
Chill'd by ev'ry zephyr's wing,
Ah! how soon its colour flies,
Blushes, trembles, falls, and dies. What is
TH ? a smiling sorrow,
Blithe to day, and sad to-morrow;
Never fix'd, for ever ranging,
Laughing, weeping, doating, changing;
Wild, capricious, giddy, vain,
Cloy'd with pleasure, nurs'd with pain;
GE steals on with wint'ry face,
Ev'ry rapt'rous Hope to chase;
Like a wither'd, sapless tree,
Bow'd to chilling Fate's decree;
Strip'd of all its foliage gay,
Drooping at the close of day;
What of tedious Life remains?
Keen regrets and cureless pains;
Till
TH appears, a welcome friend,
To bid the scene of sorrow end.
Mary Darby Robinson
Other author posts
Monody to the Memory of Chatterton
Chill penury repress'd his noble rage, And froze the genial current of his soul AY IF
The Haunted Beach
Upon a lonely desart Beach Where the white foam was scatter'd, A little shed uprear'd its head Though lofty Barks were shatter'd The Sea-weeds gath'ring near the door, A sombre path display'd; And, all around, the deaf'ning roar,...
Lines to Him Who Will Understand Them
OU art no more my bosom's ND; Here must the sweet delusion end, That charm'd my senses many a year,
Lines on Hearing it Declared that No Women Were So Handsome as the English
TY, the attribute of Heaven In various forms to mortals given, With magic skill enslaves mankind, As sportive fancy sways the mind
