The Tear
O lachrymarum fons, tenero sacrosDucentium ortus ex animo; quaterFelix! in imo qui scatentemPectore te, pia Nympha, sensit.
GRAY, 'Alcaic Fragment'.
When Friendship or LoveOur sympathies move;When Truth, in a glance, should appear,The lips may beguile,With a dimple or smile,But the test of affection's a Tear.
Too oft is a smileBut the hypocrite's wile,To mask detestation, or fear;Give me the soft sigh,Whilst the soul-telling eyeIs dimm'd, for a time, with a Tear.
Mild Charity's glow,To us mortals below,Shows the soul from barbarity clear;Compassion will melt,Where this virtue is felt,And its dew is diffused in a Tear.
The man, doom'd to sailWith the blast of the gale,Through billows Atlantic to steer,As he bends o'er the waveWhich may soon be his grave,The green sparkles bright with a Tear.
The Soldier braves deathFor a fanciful wreathIn Glory's romantic career;But he raises the foeWhen in battle laid low,And bathes every wound with a Tear.
If, with high-bounding prideHe return to his bride!Renouncing the gore-crimson'd spear;All his toils are repaidWhen, embracing the maid,From her eyelid he kisses the Tear.
Sweet scene of my youth!Seat of Friendship and Truth,Where Love chas'd each fast-fleeting year;Loth to leave thee, I mourn'd,For a last look I turn'd,But thy spire was scarce seen through a Tear.
Though my vows I can pour,To my Mary no more,My Mary, to Love once so dear,In the shade of her bow'r,I remember the hour,She rewarded those vows with a Tear.
By another possest,May she live ever blest!Her name still my heart must revere:With a sigh I resign,What I once thought was mine,And forgive her deceit with a Tear.
Ye friends of my heart,Ere from you I depart,This hope to my breast is most near:If again we shall meet,In this rural retreat,May we meet, as we part, with a Tear.
When my soul wings her flightTo the regions of night,And my corse shall recline on its bier;As ye pass by the tomb,Where my ashes consume,Oh! moisten their dust with a Tear.
May no marble bestowThe splendour of woe,Which the children of Vanity rear;No fiction of fameShall blazon my name,All I ask, all I wish, is a Tear.
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