Page:Landon in Literary Gazette 1828.pdf/9

 6 Literary Gazette, 28th June, 1828, Page 412

, let your cup flash sunshine-like To friends now far away: "Here's to the absent and the loved!" The absent, did you say?

And wherefore should we drink to them? It is a weary toast: What boots it to recall the friends Whom we have loved and lost?

Fast cuts our good ship through the sea— What does it leave behind? There is no path upon the wave, No track upon the wind.

Like that swift ship we have past on, And left no deeper trace; The circle parted from at home Has now no vacant place.

Fewer and happier years than mine On thy young brow are set; Soon thou wilt learn Time's easiest task Is teaching to forget.

I'll fill as high, I'll drink as deep— Or, must a toast be said? Well, here are all I ever pledge— "The present and the dead!"L. E. L.