Classic Poem

The youth of broken fortunes sent to roam
And banish'd early from his smiling home,
With aching heart, indignant, and opprest,
Shame on his cheek, and anguish in his breast,
Quits the lov'd scenes he hopes no more to view,
In foreign climes new objects to pursue,
Soon other joys and other sorrows come,
And from his memory fades his distant home;
Yet when revolving time with changeful hand,
Once more restores him to his native land,
When stranger like, unwelcom'd and unknown,
He wanders o'er lawns he called his own,
Sees other Lords possess his fair domains
The long lov'd woods and dear paternal plains
There as he hails the well-remembered bowers
Each silent witness of his earliest hours,
Regret and tenderness once more return
His eyes their long forgotten sorrows mourn,
Dejected, desolate, he looks around,
And treads with reverence on the sacred ground,
Feels all the cheerless gloom he felt before
When first in exile he forsook the shore,
And fondly thinks the scenes he liv'd a boy
Partake his sorrow, as they shared his joy.
E'en thus, estrang'd, divided from thy heart,
Reluctant tenderness I bad depart,
For friendship thus denied forgot to care
And hushed the feelings which you scorned to share
But when affection in thy glance I spy
Or the sweet smile of kindness meets my eye,
Once more my melting heart with love o'erflows,
Laments its former loss & weeps forgotten woes.