I What pleasures shall he ever find? What joys shall ever glad his heart? Or who shall heal his wounded mind, If tortur'd by Misfortune's smart? Who Hymeneal bliss will never prove, That more than friendship, friendship mix'd with love. II Then without child or tender wife, To drive away each care, each sigh, Lonely he treads the paths of life A stranger to Affection's tie: And when from Death he meets his final doom No mourning wife with tears of love shall wet his tomb. III Tho' Fortune, Riches, Honours, Pow'r, Had giv'n with every other toy, Those gilded trifles of the hour, Those painted nothings sure to cloy: He dies forgot, his name no son shall bear To show the man so blest once breath'd the vital air. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BALL'S BLUFF; A REVERIE by HERMAN MELVILLE TWO RED ROSES ACROSS THE MOON by WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896) A VALENTINE by LAURA ELIZABETH HOWE RICHARDS IN THE GARDEN AT SWAINSTON (IN MEMORIAM - SIR JOHN SIMEON) by ALFRED TENNYSON A WAYFARING SONG by HENRY VAN DYKE CANTO 27; WA-BE-NO-KA by LEVI BISHOP THE ARTIST TO HIS WIFE by STANLEY KILNER BOOTH RUDEL TO THE LADY OF TRIPOLI by ROBERT BROWNING WRITTEN IN VISTORS' BOOK AT THE BIRTHPLACE OF ROBERT BURNS by GEORGE WASHINGTON CABLE |