CLASSICAL MODERN POETRY. 



What varied hours of joy or woe, 



My childhood here hath pass'd ; 

 Ah, happy! ere I learnt to know 



Woe must prevail at last ! 

 As summer clouds are quickly fled 



Before the blaze of noon; 

 So transient were the tears I shed, 



And joy returned as soon ! 

 Here would I muse beside the stream, 



Or seek the shelter'd vale, 

 To shade me from the broad noon-beam, 



And woo the fragrant gale ; 

 While ardent fancy loved to frame 



Fond dreams of future bliss ; 

 Nor deem'd I, when that future came, 



Of such an hour as this ! 

 In yon low copse my brothers played, 



Their bosoms light as mine ; 

 Through yon dark wood my sisters strayed, 



At summer eve's decline ; 

 And now I cannot gaze on aught, 



Around above below, 

 That is not with remembrance fraught, 



And memory is but woe. 

 For now a wanderer must I roam, 



The sport of every wave ; 

 Far from my childhood's much-loved home, 



And from my father's grave ! 

 Nor can I hope in other clime 



To find a home as dear; 

 Hearts cannot change with place or time, 



And mine will still be here ! 



For here, with father, sister, friend, 



With nature's holiest ties, 

 Another name was wont to blend, 



And other dreams to rise. 

 But oh ! I must not breathe it now 



In silence let me bear 

 Man should his lighter griefs avow, 



But bury his despair ! 



