Poems (Nealds)/Address to Hope

by Adeline Martha Nealds

ADDRESS TO HOPE.

Say, lovely Hope, thou bland enticer, say
 Why with false joys deceive my trusting heart;
Why sing so sweetly thy seductive lay,
 And bid my sorrows for awhile depart?

Why deck each future scene with op'ning flow'rs,
 Why whisper to my soul I shall be blest?
Why gild with airy bliss the passing hours,
 And soothe into serenity my breast?

Oh tell me why thou bind'st thy lovely brow
 With rosy wreaths, and lead'st me by the hand
Through flow'ry paths, and o'er my senses throw
 A sweet enchantment with thy magic wand?

Too well I know why thus thou smil'st on me,
 Too well I know it is but to deceive;
For I, alas! too oft have trusted thee,
 And, though betray'd, again I did believe.

Too well I know thy soft bewitching wiles,
 Too oft have heard thee sing thy gipsy lay;
Too well I know that treach'rous are the smiles
 That round thy dimpled mouth so sweetly play.

Too well I know that pois'nous is the wreath
 Which now appears so beauteous to the view,
That every flow'r conceals a thorn beneath,
 And I thy blandishments ere long shall rue.

Then go, sweet syren, quickly hence depart;
 I ne'er will trust that 'witching look again:
Fly, fly for ever from my tortur'd heart,
 And let me now in solitude complain.

Yet no! I feel I cannot bid thee go;
 Stay, stay yet longer, though thou dost deceive:
Again around me thy enchantments throw,
 Again, sweet sorceress, I'll thy smiles believe.