Stanzas. Written at the Age of Seventeen
I.
Come, breath of dawn! and o’er my temples play;
Rouse to the draught of life the wearied sense;
Fly, sleep! with thy sad phantoms, far away;
Let the glad light scare those pale troublous shadows hence!
II.
I rise, and leaning from my casement high,
Feel from the morning twilight a delight;
Once more youth’s portion, hope, lights up my eye,
And for a moment I forget the sorrows of the night.
III.
O glorious morn! how great is yet thy power!
Yet how unlike to that which once I knew,
When, plumed with glittering thoughts, my soul would soar,
And pleasures visited my heart like daily dew!
IV.
Gone is life’s primal freshness all too soon;
For me the dream is vanished ere my time;
I feel the heat and weariness of noon,
And long in night’s cool shadows to recline.