TO
HOPE.
 
HOPE! thou false inmate of the human breast,
Delusive charm, enchanting souls from rest,
Why wilt thou strive to gain admittance here,
Where FORTITUDE has made the rock her seat?
Why with thy trembling sociate, coward FEAR,
Seek to invade this calm tho’ rude retreat?
Why your vain influence o’er my heart combine,
Like morning dews on yonder blasted pine?
 
Here worldly wishes long have ceased to rove;
But, like the breeze that met the orient ray,
And ’mid the noon-day fervors fann’d the grove,
With evening’s faded lustre, died away.
 
HOPE! ere again on me thou triest thy power,
Bid moon-beams raise to bloom the wither’d flower.
Shall RESIGNATION gaze on rainbow glare?
Shall wearied THOUGHT on FANCY’s pinions fly
To scenes of mimic joy where griffon care
Glotes on her victims with distorted eye,
And restless fiends of strife in ambush lie?
HOPE! when thy beams illume MISFORTUNE’s cave,
Bid the pale SPECTRE triumph o’er the GRAVE.