WHAT are riches? Hoarded treasures | |
| May, indeed, thy coffers fill; | |
| Yet, like earth’s most fleeting pleasures, | |
| Leave thee poor and heartless still. | |
| |
| What is Pleasure? When afforded | 5 |
| But by gauds that pass away, | |
| Read its fate in lines recorded | |
| On the sea-sands yesterday. | |
| |
| What is Fashion? Ask of Folly, | |
| She her worth can best express. | 10 |
| What is moping Melancholy? | |
| Go and learn of Idleness. | |
| |
| What is Truth? Too stern a preacher | |
| For the prosperous and the gay; | |
| But a safe and wholesome teacher | 15 |
| In Adversity’s dark day. | |
| |
| What is Friendship? If well founded, | |
| Like some beacon’s heavenward glow: | |
| If on false pretensions grounded | |
| Like the treacherous sand below. | 20 |
| |
| What is Love? If earthly only, | |
| Like a meteor of the night | |
| Shining but to leave more lonely | |
| Hearts that hailed its transient light: | |
| |
| But when calm, refined, and tender, | 25 |
| Purified from passion’s stain, | |
| Like the moon, in gentle splendour, | |
| Ruling o’er the peaceful main. | |
| |
| What are Hopes? But gleams of brightness, | |
| Glancing darkest clouds between; | 30 |
| Or foam-crested waves, whose whiteness | |
| Gladdens ocean’s darksome green. | |
| |
| What are Fears? Grim phantoms, throwing | |
| Shadows o’er the pilgrim’s way, | |
| Every moment darker growing, | 35 |
| If we yield unto their sway. | |
| |
| What is Mirth? A flash of lightning, | |
| Followed but by deeper gloom. | |
| Patience?—More than sunshine, bright’ning | |
| Sorrow’s path, and labour’s doom. | 40 |
| |
| What is Time? A river flowing | |
| To Eternity’s vast sea; | |
| Forward, whither all are going, | |
| On its bosom bearing thee. | |
| |
| What is Life? A bubble floating, | 45 |
| On that silent, rapid stream; | |
| Few, too few, its progress noting, | |
| Till it bursts, and ends the dream. | |
| |
| What is Death, asunder rending | |
| Every tie we love so well? | 50 |
| But the gate to life unending, | |
| Joy, in heaven! or, woe in hell! | |
| |
| Can these truths, by repetition, | |
| Lose their magnitude or weight? | |
| Estimate thine own condition, | 55 |
| Ere thou pass that fearful gate. | |
| |
| Hast thou heard them oft repeated? | |
| Much may still be left to do: | |
| Be not by profession cheated; | |
| Live—as if thou knew’st them true. | 60 |
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