Classic Poem

Friend! in thy new relation
There is no provocation
For Thought's demise;
Be all more nobly brave!
Assist each slave,
And yet more share
Thy hours and thoughts and care
With others,
Thy kinsmen and thy brothers!
And more a patriot be
Through Love's wise chemistry!

Long have I watched thee rule
Thyself; and if a still
And lustrous guardian school
Thee to a stiller patience now,
In this dear vow,
And nearer to the stars
(Save that all-reddening Mars),
More consonant with the train
Of evening and sweet Hesperus,
And her who walks the night,
In blushing radiance strayed,
A well-proportioned light,
A sea-born maid,
Who from old Ocean's foam
Laughed, and made men at home;

In truth, if this prove so, —
If her soft beams
Silver the rushing streams,
And gild the moss
Where the ancestral brothers toss —
Dark oaks and murmuring pines,
Stags of a thousand tines;
These rocks so grave, if they
Smile with humected day,
And silken zephyrs thrill
The maple's foliage, where the bird
Rose-breasted rings
With Music's clearest springs, —
What then?
Though softer, we 're still men!