Page:Poems Sigourney, 1834.pdf/145

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"Only this once,"—the wine-cup glowed All sparkling with its ruby ray, The Bacchanalian welcome flowed And Folly made the revel gay.

Then he, so long, so deeply warned, The sway of conscience rashly spurned, His promise of repentance scorned, And coward-like to vice returned.

"Only this once."—The tale is told, He wildly quaffed the poisonous tide, With more than Esau's madness sold The birth-right of his soul—and died.

I do not say that breath forsook The clay, and left its pulses dead, But reason in her empire shook, And all the life of life was fled.

Again his eyes the landscape viewed, His limbs again their burden bore, And years their wonted course renewed, But hope and peace returned no more.