Stanzas to a Friend

AH! think no more that Life's delusive joys,  Can charm my thoughts from

IP'S dearer claim;

Or wound a heart, that scarce a wish employs,  For age to censure, or discretion blame.

Tir'd of the world, my weary mind recoils  From splendid scenes, and transitory joys;

From fell Ambition's false and fruitless toils,  From hope that flatters, and from bliss that cloys.

With

EE, above the taunts of empty pride,  The rigid frowns to youthful error given;

Content in solitude my griefs I'll hide,  Thy voice my counsellor­thy smiles my Heaven.

With thee I'll hail the morn's returning ray,  Or climb the dewy mountain bleak and cold;

On the smooth lake observe the sun-beams play,  Or mark the infant flow'rs their buds unfold.

Pleas'd will I watch the glitt'ring queen of Night  Spread her white mantle o'er the face of Heaven;

And from thy converse snatch the pure delight,  By truth sublime to

AL feeling given.

And as the varying seasons glide away,  This moral lesson shall my bosom learn,

How

ME steals on, while blissful hours decay  Like fleeting

ER to return.

And when I see thy warm unspotted mind,  Torn with the wound of broken

IP'S dart;

When sickness chills thy breast with pangs unkind,  Or ruthless sorrow preys upon thy heart;

The task be

NE to soothe thee to repose,  To check the sigh, and wipe the trickling tear,

Or with soft

HY to share thy woes;  O, proudest rapture of the soul sincere !

And ye who flutter thro' the vacant hour,  Where tasteless Apathy's empoison'd

Arrests the vagrant sense with numbing pow'r,  While vanquish'd

ON bows at her command.

O say, what bliss can transient Life bestow,  What balm so grateful to the social mind,

As

IP'S voice­where gentle precepts flow  From the blest source of sentiment refin'd?

When

TE'S stern hand shall close my weeping eye,  And seal, at length, my wand'ring spirit's doom;

Oh! may kind

IP catch my parting sigh,  And cheer with

PE the terrors of the

MB.