| Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829. | | | | Why Should We Sigh? | | By William B. Tappan (1794–1849) |
| | | WHY should we sigh when Fancy’s dream, | |
| The ray that shone ’mid youthful tears, | |
| Departing, leaves no kindly gleam, | |
| To cheer the lonely waste of years? | |
| Why should we sigh?—The fairy charm | 5 |
| That bound each sense in folly’s chain | |
| Is broke, and Reason, clear and calm, | |
| Resumes her holy rights again. | |
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| Why should we sigh that earth no more | |
| Claims the devotion once approved? | 10 |
| That joys endear’d, with us are o’er, | |
| And gone are those these hearts have loved? | |
| Why should we sigh?—Unfading bliss | |
| Survives the narrow grasp of time; | |
| And those that asked our tears in this, | 15 |
| Shall render smiles in yonder clime. | | | | |
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