Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/55

1,^20-30.] T H d M A S PEIRCE. 39 If bless'd with kind parental care, With complaisance the wise regard, To guard her steps from vice's snare ; But from your company discard And if rehgion summon The silly fools of fashion. To taste her joys a maid hke this ; — You must, dear friend, possess of bliss And should you find a modest youth, A portion more than common. The friend of piety and truth, In precept and example, For she who thus aspires to feel. Proceed by mutual vows to prove And cultivate with ardent zeal, The consummation of your love Those virtuous dispositions At Hymen's sacred temple. By which alone the fair can rise, Of human bliss will realize For she who heeds but folly's voice, The most romantic visions. And makes her matrimonial choice From outward show and ghtter, Proceed, dear girl, in learning's way ; May find, with sorrow in the end, Whatever coxcomb fools may say. Her late warm, kind, connubial friend. 'Tis knowledge that ennobles ; Will all hfe's sweets embitter. Still laugh at beauty's outward show, Still shun the proud unletter'd beau, But she who, scorning wealth and birth. And scorn pedantic foibles. Aims in her choice alone at worth, From mental coffers flowing, Unskill'd in coquetry's vain wiles, Illumed will pass life's somber way. Devoid of art, and siren smiles. Fair as the dawn to perfect day. And free from envy's leaven, Still bright and brighter glowing. Still with untiring ardor run The virtuous course you have begun Beneath the smiles of heaven. -^1— Beauty, at best, is but a gleam Of mem'ry, from a frenzied dream Or legendary story ; THE DRAMA. 'Tis but the rainbow in the skies. In "olden time," when arts and taste re- Which steals away before our eyes, fined In evanescent glory. Lit with bright beams the midnight of the mind, 'Tis but a new-blown fragile flower. And martial Greece subdued her num'rous Blushing beside a roseate bower : — foes, If with rude hand you sever The Drama's sun o'er classic Athens rose. Its beauties from its native stem — By clouds obscured, at first it scarcely Though fair and brilliant as a gem, spread It fades away forever. Its pale cold beams o'er each high moun- tain's head, And if (as may occur ere long) Till gaining step by step its noonday height, Around you num'rous suitors throng, It clothed the boundless scene with brill- Led on by ardent passion. iant light.