George Crabbe.

1754-1832

494    Meeting

MY Damon was the first to wake
   The gentle flame that cannot die;
My Damon is the last to take
   The faithful bosom’s softest sigh:
The life between is nothing worth,
   O cast it from thy thought away!
Think of the day that gave it birth,
   And this its sweet returning day.

Buried be all that has been done,
   Or say that naught is done amiss;
For who the dangerous path can shun
   In such bewildering world as this?
But love can every fault forgive,
   Or with a tender look reprove;
And now let naught in memory live
   But that we meet, and that we love.

495    Late Wisdom

WE’VE trod the maze of error round,
    Long wandering in the winding glade;
And now the torch of truth is found,
    It only shows us where we strayed:
By long experience taught, we know—
    Can rightly judge of friends and foes;
Can all the worth of these allow,
    And all the faults discern in those.

Now, ’tis our boast that we can quell
    The wildest passions in their rage,
Can their destructive force repel,
    And their impetuous wrath assuage.—
Ah, Virtue ! dost thou arm when now
    This bold rebellious race are fled?
When all these tyrants rest, and thou
    Art warring with the mighty dead?

496    A Marriage Ring

THE ring, so worn as you behold,
So thin, so pale, is yet of gold:
The passion such it was to prove—
Worn with life’s care, love yet was love.