Classic Poem

False and ill-grounded were my hopes,
My expectations vain;
Each step increases my complaints,
And nourishes my pain.

Here will I pause — this shady walk,
That variegated field,
Nor all the lovely landscape round,
Their wonted pleasures yield.

One black and universal cloud
Wide overspreads the whole;
Creation sickens, and is dark
And gloomy as my soul.

Clyde's plaintive wave, the sighing gale,
The warbler of each tree,
Sing one sad melancholy song,
In unison with me.

Why should I struggle with my fate?
Alas! where'er I go,
I groan beneath my sorrow's weight,
And bear about my woe.

Yes, here I'll pause — and lay me down,
Nor ever hope relief!
But brood in silence o'er my ills,
And feed my growing grief.

If ye behold me, lovely peers!
Thus lowly as I ly,
Seek not to raise me from this turf,
In pity pass me by.

So may ye never while ye live
My many mis'ries prove,
And never never weep forlorn
A luckless latent love.

Unhappy he! who danger fees,
Nor can the danger shun;
Who looks on beauty when it smiles,
And hopes, and is undone.

Yes, C LARA smil'd; the smile I caught;
Red was her blush of shame;
But glad I caught the infant love,
And fann'd it to a flame.

Freely I took her to my arms,
Nor once of distance dream'd;
But ev'ry coming day and night
One scene of rapture deem'd!

But soon, O! soon, the vision past,
The sweet inchantment broke,
Too soon we from this fancy'd bliss
To real woe awoke!

Disjoin'd by destiny's award,
Without one last farewel,
Far, far from the delightful scene
Disconsolate we dwell.

Disjoin'd! — for ever if disjoin'd,
Of what avail this breath?
Better the cov'ring of a sod,
The dark cold house of death.

Yet, yet a little, and I leave
Mortality's low sphere;
Another world! — Say, C LARA ! will
You meet your D AMON there?

No: — health and happiness be thine,
Thine pleasures ever new;
And while I live, my life shall be
One long, long sigh for you.