ANTICIPATION.

_(For the Mirror.)_


'Twixt the appointment and the day
Ages seem to roll away--
Lingering doubts and cares arise,
Fancy glows with sweet surmise;
Now a hope--and now a fear,
First a smile--and then a tear;
But that day may never come,
Death may seal thine earthly doom.
Or that day may prove unkind,
Thine anticipation blind!
The best pleasure thou wilt know
May be to brood upon thy woe:
Wailing happy days gone by,
When fancied pleasures mock'd thine eye:
Days that never shall return.
Mortal, then, this lesson learn--
Struggle not against thy fate,
For thy last day hath its date!
It is written in the skies,
And a guardian angel cries,
Dream no more of earthly joys,
They are fleeting, fickle toys.

CYMBELINE.