Page:Literary Souvenir 1826.pdf/2



, moralize on Love, and deem Its life but as an April gleam,— A thing of sunshine and of showers, Of dying leaves and falling flowers. Who would not bear the darkest sphere That such a rainbow comes to cheer? Ay, turn and wail above the tomb Where sleep the wreck of youth and bloom; And deem it quite enough to say,— Thus Beauty and thus Love decay. But I must look upon this spot With feelings thy cold heart has not; Those gentle thoughts that consecrate, Even while they weep, the lover's fate. I thought upon the star-lit hour, When leant the maid 'mid leaf and flower, And blushed and smiled the tale to hear, Poured from her dark-eyed cavalier; And yet, I too must moralize, Albeit with gentler sympathies,