If memory brings those hours to view,
Those fleeting hours when joy was new,
When hope with rainbow wings was near,
To enhance each pleasure and to calm each fear,
They only come to make my pangs more keen,
And shew me what my days of bliss have been—
As round some hapless ruin sunbeams play,
And gild the tottering pile Laughing the wreck to scorn and mocking its decay.
When Winter o'er us holds his rigid reign, Have you ne'er seen your breath upon the pane, By frost congeal'd, a thousand forms display, Till at your near approach they melt away; And for the steeples, towns, and towers that rose, Through the clear crystal frowns a field of snows t
Thus the fond wretch, condemned through life to sigh,
Looks at the glass which hides futurity,
With joy extatic scans the shining scene,
Nor dreams what dangers lurk behind the screen,
But rushing on to grasp the promised prize,
Sees the frail frostwork fade before his eyes;
And for the fairy-veil which fancy flung
Bedeck'd with silver, and with jewels hung,
He finds behind a bleak and barren plain,
Where one wan winter holds eternal reign !
Courtship consists
