INCONSTANCY.
They told me he'd forsake me; that the words
With which he charmed my very soul away,
Were like the hollow music of a shell
That learns to mock the ocean's deeper voice.
For he had listened to love's tones until
His ear and lip, though not his heart, had grown
Familiar with their melody. Nay, more,
They said his very boyhood had been marked
By worse than a boy's follies, that in youth,
The season of high hopes, when lesser men
Put on their manhood as a monarch's heir
Rich robes and royalty, his poor ambition
Asked but new charms and pleasures, newer loves,
With which he charmed my very soul away,
Were like the hollow music of a shell
That learns to mock the ocean's deeper voice.
For he had listened to love's tones until
His ear and lip, though not his heart, had grown
Familiar with their melody. Nay, more,
They said his very boyhood had been marked
By worse than a boy's follies, that in youth,
The season of high hopes, when lesser men
Put on their manhood as a monarch's heir
Rich robes and royalty, his poor ambition
Asked but new charms and pleasures, newer loves,
