4. Yet think of this when many a tongue, Whose busy accents whisper blame, Would do the heart that loved thee wrong, And brand a nearly blighted name. 5. Think that, whate'er to others, thou I bless thy purer soul even now, 6. Oh, God! that we had met in tìme, Our hearts as fond, thy hand more free; When thou had'st loved without a crime; And I been less unworthy thee! 7. Far may thy days, as heretofore, Oh! may such trial be thy last! 8. This heart, alas! perverted long, Itself destroyed might there destroy; To meet thee in the glittering throng, Would wake Presumption's hope of joy. 9. Then to the things whose bliss or woe. Like mine, is wild and worthless all, That world resign such scenes forego, Where those who feel must surely fall. 10. Thy youth, thy charms, thy tenderness, Oh! pardon that imploring tear, For me they shall not weep again. 12. Though long and mournful must it be, And almost deem the sentence sweet. 13. Still, had I loved thee less, my heart As if its guilt had made thee mine. 4 XXIX. Lines inscribed upon a Cup formed from a Skull. START not 1. nor deem my spirit fled: In me behold the only skull, From which, unlike a living head, I lived, I loved, I quaffed, like thee; Fill up thou canst not injure me; The worm hath fouler lips than thine. 3. Better to hold the sparkling grape, Than nurse the earth - worn's slimy brood; And circle in the goblet's shape The drink of Gods, than reptile's food. 4. Where once my wit, perchance, hath shone, And when, alas! our brains are gone, 5. Quaff while thou canst another race, When thou and thine like me are sped, May rescue thee from earth's embrace, And rhyme and revel with the dead. 6. Why not? since through life's little day Newstead Abbey, 1808. |