AN ELEGY.

ON THE VANITY OF YOUTHFUL EXPECTATIONS.

AN ELEGY.

December 1771.

HENCE, gaudy Flattery, with thy siren song,
Thy fading laurels and thy trump of praise,
Thy magic glass, that cheats the wond'ring throng,
And bids vain men grow vainer, as they gaze!

For what the gain, though nature have supplied
Her keenest nerves, to taste the stings of pain?
That fame how poor, that swells our baseless pride,

And shews the heights, our steps must ne'er attain ? How vain those thoughts, that through creation rove, Returning fraught with images of woe;

Those gifts how vain, that please not those we love,
With grief oppress'd, how small the gain-to know!*

And oh, that fate, in life's sequester'd shade
Had fix'd the limits of my silent way,
Far from the scenes in gilded pomp array'd,
Where hope and fame, but flatter, to betray.

* Scire tuum nihil est. Persius.

The lark had call'd me at the birth of dawn,

My cheerful toils and rural sports to share ;
Nor when mild evening glimmer'd on the lawn,
Had sleep been frighted by the voice of care.
So the soft flocks in harmless pastime stray,
Or sport in rapture on the flow'ry mead,
Enjoy the beauties of the vernal day,

And no sad prescience tells them they must bleed.
Then wild ambition ne'er had swell'd my heart,
Nor had my steps pursued the road to fame;
Then ne'er had Slander raised th' envenomed dart,
Nor hung in vengeance o'er my hated name;
Nor dreams of bliss, that never must be mine,
Urged the fond tear or raised the bursting sigh;
Nor tend'rest pangs had bid my soul repine,

Nor torture warn'd me, that my hopes must die. Farewell, ye visions of the youthful breast,

The boast of genius and the pride of praise,
Gay pleasure's charms by fairy fancy dress'd,
The patriot's honours and the poet's bays.

Vain Hope adieu! thou dear deluding cheat,
Whose magic charm can burst the bands of pain;

By thee decoy'd, we clasp the gay deceit,

And hail the dawn of future bliss, in vain.