2. Yet precious seems each shattered part, And every fragment dearer grown, Since he who wears thee, feels thou art A fitter emblem of his own. VOL. IV. XIX. [This poem and the following were written some years ago.] To a Youthful Friend. 1. Few years have passed since thou and I Were firmest friends, at least in name, And childhood's gay sincerity Preserved our feelings long the same. And such the change the heart displays, So frail is early friendship's reign, A month's brief lapse, perhaps a day's, Will view thy mind estranged again. 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, My spring of life has quickly fled; Thou, too, hast ceased 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 Dares all things boldly but to lie; When thought ere spoke is unconfined, 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. We learn at length our faults to blend, And those, and those alone may claim The prostituted name of friend. |