Classic Poem

By Maiden's solitary banks,
In vain I pensive stray;
And recollect each happy spot
Where lovely M IRA lay.

Sad is the comfort, small the joy,
Remembrance can bestow;
A momentary gleam at most;
Short interval of woe!

Each waving willow brings to mind
Some fleeting pleasure past;
And ev'ry blooming flow'r recals
Some joy for ever lost.

Ev'n Maiden , as in sullen haste
Her gloomy wa'ers roll,
Points back to former days, and feeds
The sorrows of my soul.

Awak'd by mem'ry, sleeping cares
With keener violence wound;
Each lowly lily bears a thorn,
And briers are spread around,

Ye pleasing, lonely scenes! farewel;
Nor wake my warning woes;
Still let me shun your dang'rous path,
Nor hazard my repose.

Far, far remov'd from all your snares,
By unobserv'd degrees,
My troubled soul may sink again
To melancholy ease.