By every son of grateful IDA blest, It finds an echo in each youthful breast; IDA! not yet exhausted is the theme, IDA! still o'er thy hills in joy preside, That tear, perhaps, the fondest which will flow, Tell me, ye hoary few, who glide along, The feeble Veterans of some former throng, 370 380 Whose friends, like Autumn leaves by tempests whirl'd, Are swept for ever from this busy world; Revolve the fleeting moments of your youth, 390 As those where Youth her garland twin'd for you? 400 Ah, no! amid the gloomy calm of age You turn with faltering hand life's varied page, But bless the scroll which fairer words adorn, Trac'd by the rosy finger of the Morn; When Friendship bow'd before the shrine of truth, And Love, without his pinion,1 smil'd on Youth. i. his venom'd tooth.-[Hours of Idleness.] 410 I. "L'Amitié est l'Amour sans ailes," is a French proverb. [See the lines so entitled, p. 220.j ANSWER TO A BEAUTIFUL POEM, WRITTEN BY MONTGOMERY, AUTHOR OF "THE WANDERER OF SWITZERLAND," ENTITLED "THE COMMON LOT."1 I. MONTGOMERY! true, the common lot Of mortals lies in Lethe's wave; Yet some shall never be forgot, Some shall exist beyond the grave. 2. "Unknown the region of his birth," 2 The hero rolls the tide of war; Yet not unknown his martial worth, Which glares a meteor from afar. 3. His joy or grief, his weal or woe, Perchance may 'scape the page of fame; The record of his deathless name. ETC., 1. [Montgomery (James), 1771-1854, poet and hymn-writer, published Prison Amusements (1797), The Ocean; a Poem (1805), The Wanderer of Switzerland, and other Poems (1806), The West Indies, and other Poems (1810), Songs of Sion (1822), The Christian Psalmist (1825), The Pelican Island, and other Poems (1827), etc. (vide post, English Bards, etc., line 425, and note).] 2. No particular hero is here alluded to. The exploits of Bayard, Nemours, Edward the Black Prince, and, in more modern times, the fame of Marlborough, Frederick the Great, Count Saxe, Charles of Sweden, etc., are familiar to every historical reader, but the exact places of their birth are known to a very small proportion of their admirers. 4. The Patriot's and the Poet's frame Must share the common tomb of all: Their glory will not sleep the same; That will arise, though Empires fall. 5. The lustre of a Beauty's eye Assumes the ghastly stare of death; The fair, the brave, the good must die, And sink the yawning grave beneath. 6. Once more, the speaking eye revives, For Petrarch's Laura still survives: She died, but ne'er will die again. 7. The rolling seasons pass away, And Time, untiring, waves his wing; Whilst honour's laurels ne'er decay, But bloom in fresh, unfading spring. 8. All, all must sleep in grim repose, The old, the young, with friends and foes, Fest'ring alike in shrouds, consume. 9. The mouldering marble lasts its day, Yet falls at length an useless fane; The wrecks of pillar'd Pride remain. IO. What, though the sculpture be destroy'd, By those, whose virtues claim reward. II. Then do not say the common lot Of all lies deep in Lethe's wave; Some few who ne'er will be forgot Shall burst the bondage of the grave. 1806. LOVE'S LAST ADIEU. 'Αεὶ δ ̓ ἀεί με φεύγει.—[PSEUD.] ANACREON, [Εἰς χρυσὸν]. I. THE roses of Love glad the garden of life, Though nurtur'd 'mid weeds dropping pestilent dew, Till Time crops the leaves with unmerciful knife, Or prunes them for ever, in Love's last adieu ! |