Classic Poem

I was once happy and blest;
But pleasure has flown from me long.
I was once love and caressed;
But my loves only live now in song.

I was once cheerful and gay,
The rose on my cheek spread its bloom;
But the roses have faded away,
And left but the hue of the tomb.

Pleasure once beamed in my eye, —
O how blithely I laughed and I sung!
But those moments of bliss are gone by,
And my bower all with mourning is hung.

They called me an angel, and smiled,
And I smiled, and believed they spoke true;
O, how my weak heart was beguiled!
I was ruined, — then bidden adieu.

Ye who exult in your youth
And your beauty, be taught by my tear;
O, listen to nothing but truth,
And close on the flatterer your ear.