Life
"What is this world?thy school, O misery!"Our only lesson is to learn to suffer."
- YOUNG.
LOVE, thou sportive fickle boy,Source of anguish, child of joy,Ever woundingever smiling,Soothing still, and still beguiling;What are all thy boasted treasures,Tender sorrows, transient pleasures?Anxious hopes, and jealous fears,LAUGHING HOURS, and MOURNING YEARS.
What is FRIENDSHIP'S soothing name?But a shad'wy, vap'rish flame;Fancy's balm for ev'ry wound,Ever sought, but rarely found;What is BEAUTY ? but a flow'r,Blooming, fading in an hour;Deck'd with brightest tints at morn,At twilight with'ring on a thorn;Like the gentle Rose of spring,Chill'd by ev'ry zephyr's wing,Ah! how soon its colour flies,Blushes, trembles, falls, and dies.
What is YOUTH ? a smiling sorrow,Blithe to day, and sad to-morrow;Never fix'd, for ever ranging,Laughing, weeping, doating, changing;Wild, capricious, giddy, vain,Cloy'd with pleasure, nurs'd with pain;AGE steals on with wint'ry face,Ev'ry rapt'rous Hope to chase;Like a wither'd, sapless tree,Bow'd to chilling Fate's decree;Strip'd of all its foliage gay,Drooping at the close of day;What of tedious Life remains?Keen regrets and cureless pains;Till DEATH appears, a welcome friend,To bid the scene of sorrow end.
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