"commenc" poems
A Song
Fill the goblet again! for I never before
Felt the glow which now gladdens my heart to its core;
Let us drink!—who would not?—since, through life’s varied round,
In the goblet alone no deception is found.
I have tried in its turn all that life can supply;
I have bask’d in the beam of a dark rolling eye;
I have lov’d!—who has not?—but what heart can declare
That Pleasure existed while Passion was there?
In the days of my youth, when the heart’s in its spring,
And dreams that Affection can never take wing,
I had friends!—who has not?—but what tongue will avow,
That friends, rosy wine! are so faithful as thou?
The heart of a mistress some boy may estrange,
Friendship shifts with the sunbeam—thou never canst change;
Thou grow’st old—who does not?—but on earth what appears,
Whose virtues, like thine, still increase with its years?
Yet if blest to the utmost that Love can bestow,
Should a rival bow down to our idol below,
We are jealous!—who’s not?—thou hast no such alloy;
For the more that enjoy thee, the more we enjoy.
Then the season of youth and its vanities past,
For refuge we fly to the goblet at last;
There we find—do we not?—in the flow of the soul,
That truth, as of yore, is confined to the bowl.
When the box of Pandora was open’d on earth,
And Misery’s triumph commenc’d over Mirth,
Hope was left,—was she not?—but the goblet we kiss,
And care not for Hope, who are certain of bliss.
Long life to the grape! for when summer is flown,
The age of our nectar shall gladden our own:
We must die—who shall not?—May our sins be forgiven,
And **** shall never be idle in Heaven.
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One sunny aftr’noon I chose
To stroll upon the sound
When suddenly I glimpsed ahead
And saw, me, on the ground
This vaguest doppelganger mimick’d
Ev’ry move I made
It spun upon the sand and whirl’d
As I turn’d away
Than standing still, I crook’d my head
And look’d behind in shock
I saw my mimic laying there
As wrought and real as rock
But as the sun began to sink
And moon commenc’d to rise
My companion stretch’d as on
A rack, before my very eyes
I slep’t upon the beach that night
Awaiting its return
And awoke to feel the sand against
My face begin to burn
Still half asleep, I stumbled to
The bay to wash my eyes
And while splashing water on my head
I view’d to my surprise
My shadow spread across the sand
And glinting smoothen’d stone
Now in days of solitude
I know I’m not alone
Dec 15, 2011
Dec 15, 2011 at 6:19 PM UTC