Page:Poems translated from the French of Madame De la Mothe Guion.djvu/34

28 But shallow cisterns yield

A scanty, short supply;

The morning sees them amply fill'd,

The ev'ning finds them dry.

O LOVE! of pure and heav'nly birth!

O! simple Truth, scarce known on earth!

Whom men resist with stubborn will;

And more perverse and daring still,

Smother and quench, with reas'nings vain,

While error and deception reign.

Whence comes it, that, your pow'r the same

As His on high, from whom you came,

Ye rarely find a list'ning ear,

Or heart that makes you welcome here?—

Because ye bring reproach and pain,

Where'er ye visit, in your train.

The world is proud, and cannot bear

The scorn and calumny ye share:

The praise of men, the mark they mean,

They fly the place where ye are seen;

Pure Love, with scandal in the rear,

Suits not the vain; it costs too dear.