Thy heart with hollow joy for hollow good? Why cowl thy face beneath the mourner's hood, Why waste thy sighs, and thy lamenting voices, Image of image, ghost of ghostly elf, That such a thing as thou feel'st warm or cold? Yet what and whence thy gain, if thou withhold These costless shadows of thy shadowy self? Be sad! be glad! be neither! seek, or shun! Thou hast no reason why! Thou can'st have none; Thy being's being is a contradiction. SEPARATION.* A SWORDED man whose trade is blood, The dazzling charm of outward form, The power of gold, the pride of birth, * See Note. 1816. Is not truc Love of higher price O! Asra, Asra! couldst thou see (This separation is, alas! Too great a punishment to bear; O! take my life, or let me pass That life, that happy life, with her!) The perils, erst with steadfast eye 1814 ON TAKING LEAVE OF 1817.* To know, to esteem, to love-and then to part, The forms of memory all my mental food, * See Note. |