_A Love Song. To----.
[Imit. and Transl., p. 197.]
[Footnote ii:
_Remind me not, remind me not_.
[MS. L.] ]
[Footnote iii:
_Must still_.
[MS. L.] ]
TO A YOUTHFUL FRIEND. [i]
1.
Few years have pass'd since thou and I Were firmest friends, at least in name, And Childhood's gay sincerity Preserved our feelings long the same. [ii]
2.
But now, like me, too well thou know'st [iii]
What trifles oft the heart recall; And those who once have loved the most Too soon forget they lov'd at all. [iv]
3.
And such the change the heart displays, So frail is early friendship's reign, [v]
A month's brief lapse, perhaps a day's, Will view thy mind estrang'd again. [vi]
4.
If so, it never shall be mine To mourn the loss of such a heart; The fault was Nature's fault, not thine, Which made thee fickle as thou art.
5.
As rolls the Ocean's changing tide, So human feelings ebb and flow; And who would in a breast confide Where stormy passions ever glow?
6.
It boots not that, together bred, Our childish days were days of joy: My spring of life has quickly fled; Thou, too, hast ceas'd to be a boy.
7.
And when we bid adieu to youth, Slaves to the specious World's controul, We sigh a long farewell to truth; That World corrupts the noblest soul.
8.
Ah, joyous season! when the mind [1]
Dares all things boldly but to lie; When Thought ere spoke is unconfin'd, And sparkles in the placid eye.
9.
Not so in Man's maturer years, When Man himself is but a tool; When Interest sways our hopes and fears, And all must love and hate by rule.
10.
With fools in kindred vice the same, [vii]
We learn at length our faults to blend; And those, and those alone, may claim The prostituted name of friend.
11.
Such is the common lot of man: Can we then 'scape from folly free?