CANTO VI.

Triumph of Old Age.

AN ELEGIAC POEM.

CANTO VI.

Overcoming the Fondness of Life.

WHO has not often up the neighb'ring steep
Hurry'd to welcome the propitious gale,
As sweeping o'er the surface of the deep,
It bade th' expecting bark expand its sail?

For tho' he fears no dangers from the main,
That soon shall waft him to more fruitful lands;

Say, does the hardy sailor feel no pain,

As to the task he lends reluctant hands?

"Tis not for reason coldly to decide,

When bursting passions have not time to cool; The certain chance of profit is deny'd,

And truth is stifled where the feelings rule.

His bark is sailing to a better shore,

And what he leaves are but resources scant; And why should he this parting thus deplore, That will secure his future age from want?

Yet there is something that he leaves behind, Some scenes, tho' trifling, graven on his heart; Some dear remembrance of the youthful mind And were he man, could he unmov'd depart?

The scenes that saw his being's earliest dawn,
He leaves, uncertain for how long he leaves;

Or thinks, perhaps, upon that village lawn,
Where now for him some plighted maiden grieves.

And is there one who moves in mortal shape, Who has not felt this anguish more or less? "Twere more than human, if he could escape,

The pang reluctant, and the heart's distress.