I swore, in a transport of young indignation,
With fervent contempt evermore to disdain you :
I saw you—my anger became admiration ;

And now, all my wish, all my hope's to regain you.

With beauty like yours, oh, how vain the contention ! Thus lowly I sue for forgiveness before you;

At once to conclude such a fruitless dissension,

Be false, my sweet Anne, when I cease to adore

you!

January 16, 1807. [First published, 1832].

A

H! heedless girl! why thus disclose

What ne'er was meant for other ears; Why thus destroy thine own repose And dig the source of future tears?

Oh, thou wilt weep, imprudent maid,
While lurking envious foes will smile,
For all the follies thou hast said

Of those who spoke but to beguile.

Vain girl! thy ling'ring woes are nigh,
If thou believ'st what striplings say:
Oh, from the deep temptation fly,

Nor fall the specious spoiler's prey.

Dost thou repeat, in childish boast,

The words man utters to deceive? Thy peace, thy hope, thy all is lost, If thou canst venture to believe.

While now amongst thy female peers
Thou tell'st again the soothing tale,
Canst thou not mark the rising sneers
Duplicity in vain would veil ?

These tales in secret silence hush,
Nor make thyself the public gaze :
What modest maid without a blush
Recounts a flattering coxcomb's praise?

Will not the laughing boy despise
Her who relates each fond conceit---
Who, thinking Heaven is in her eyes,
Yet cannot see the slight deceit ?

For she who takes a soft delight

These amorous nothings in revealing,

Must credit all we say or write,

While vanity prevents concealing.

Cease, if you prize your beauty's reign!
No jealousy bids me reprove
One, who is thus from nature vain,

I pity, but I cannot love.

January 15, 1807. [First published, 1832.]

IN ONE WHO FELT AS ONCE HE FELT.

(ON FINDING A FAN.)

N one who felt as once he felt,

This might, perhaps, have fann'd the
flame;

But now his heart no more will melt,
Because that heart is not the same.

As when the ebbing flames are low,
The aid which once improved their light,
And bade them burn with fiercer glow,
Now quenches all their blaze in night.

Thus has it been with passion's fires-
As many a boy and girl remembers