The glow of friendship and the warmth of love.
And ah! to sacred Memory ever nigh,
Thy wit and humour claim the passing sigh:
When, thro' the hour, with unresisted skill,
I've seen thee mould each feature to thy will,--
When friends drew round thee with attentive ear,
Pleas'd with the raill'ry which they could not fear.
Oh! how I've heard thee, with concealing art,
Join in the song, tho' sorrow rent thy heart;
How have I seen thee too, with venial guile,
O'er many an anguish force the faithless smile,--
Seen suffering Nature check each sigh, each fear,
To rob maternal fondness of a tear!
Alas! those scenes are past!--Vain was the pray'r
That ask'd of Fate to soften and to spare;
Ah! vain, if wit and virtue could not save
Thy youthful honours from an early grave.
But yet, if here my warm fraternal love
May claim alliance with the realms above;
If kindred Nature, with perpetual bloom,
Transplanted springs, and lives beyond the tomb;
Thy pitying soul shall smile upon my grief,
Shall feel a pang that wishes not relief;
In visions still shall shield me as I go,
Along this gloomy wilderness of woe;
Shall still regard me with peculiar pride,
On earth my brother, and in heav'n my guide!
Methinks I see thee reach th' empyrean shore,
And heav'n's full chorus hails one angel more;
While 'mid the seraph-forms that round thee fly,