Classic Poem

IF mem'ry, generous friends, be not too slow,
When backward your own goodness ye might trace;
And ye will only keep the virtuous pace,
Still to do good, and forward still to go;
Ye will remember, that a heedless thing,
Ling'ring as with enchantment, once would stray,
Or lost in thought, or borne on fancy's wing,
Where moves the sedgy Cam his loitering way;
(For thought, though solemn, has the pow'r to please,
And song, though simple, can from care beguile)
And he would seem to talk with fields and trees,
Or forms unseen, that fancy taught to smile:
For me,—remembrance still shall love those days,
If friendship but approve my visionary lays.