THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
Then other lovers came around you,
Your beauty grew from year to year, And many a splendid circle found you
The centre of its glittering sphere. 1 saw you then, first vows forsaking,
On rank and wealth your hand bestow;
But that was forty years ago.
And I lived on, to wed another:
No cause she gave me to repine; And when I heard you were a mother,
I did not wish the children mine. My own young flock, in fair progression,
Made up a pleasant Christmas row: My joy in them was past expression;
But that was thirty years ago.
You grew a matron plump and comely,
You dwelt in fashion's brightest blaze; My earthly lot was far more homely;
But I too had my festal days. No merrier eyes have ever ghsten'd
Around the hearth-stone's wintry glow, Than when my youngest child was christen'd,
But that was twenty years ago.
Time pass'd. My eldest girl was married,
And I am now a grandsire gray; One pet of four years old IVe carried
Among the wild-flower'd meads to play.
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