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And keen desire and love of high pursuit
And buoyancy of hope and courage firm
And aspiration restless evermore—
Whatever life's great tasks made seem but play—
So stealthily thou takest, that the robbed
Scarce note their loss, or noting half believe.
Yes, Edward, thou and Mary, yet thine own,
Still dear, far dearer, than when thy young heart
Felt love's first pulses beat, are not the same
In thought, wish, purpose, taste, or mien and air,
As when around you glowed the bridal morn.
The brows then fresh and fair, with deeper lines
Are furrowed by that skilled engraver Time;
Then life lay all before you, like some scene
Of rarest beauty to the eye made clear
And magnified by telescopic glass;
Now, through the glass inverted, ye behold
Reduced to littleness what once seemed great,
And dimmed, by half, the glory that did charm.
Grown calmer and more wise, ye, well content,
Resign your old ambitions, pleased to dwell