Classic Poem

We met but in one giddy dance,
——Good-night joined hands with greeting;
And twenty thousand things may chance
——Before our second meeting;
For oh! I have been often told
——That all the world grows older,
And hearts and hopes to-day so cold,
——To-morrow must be colder.

If I have never touched the string
——Beneath your chamber, dear one,
And never said one civil thing
——When you were by to hear one,—
If I have made no rhymes about
——Those looks which conquer Stoics,
And heard those angel tones, without
——One fit of fair heroics,—

Yet do not, though the world's cold school
——Some bitter truths has taught me,
Oh, do not deem me quite the fool
——Which wiser friends have thought me!
There is one charm I still could feel,
——If no one laughed at feeling;
One dream my lute could still reveal,—
——If it were worth revealing.

But Folly little cares what name
——Of friend or foe she handles,
When merriment directs the game,
——And midnight dims the candles;
I know that Folly's breath is weak
——And would not stir a feather;
But yet I would not have her speak
——Your name and mine together.

Oh no! this life is dark and bright,
——Half rapture and half sorrow;
My heart is very full to-night,
——My cup shall be to-morrow!
But they shall never know from me,
——On any one condition,
Whose health made bright my Burgundy,
——Whose beauty was my vision!