Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since — Chapter VII

"Sacred was the pen that wrote,Thy father's friend forget thou not."Marmion.

"Theirs are the joys by Fancy fed,Less pleasing when possest,The tear forgot, as soon as shed,The sun-shine of the breast."

"————— his rapier drew,And pierc'd his bosom through,And bade this world adieu,Forevermore."

"From lasting and unclouded day,From joys refin'd, above allay,And from a spring without decay—I come!—by Cynthia's borrow'd beams,To visit my Cornelia's dreams,And give them yet sublimer themes.Behold the man thou lov'dst before!Pure streams have wash'd away his gore,And Pompey now shall bleed no more.

By death, this glory I assume,Nor could I bear the fearful doom,To outlive the liberties of Rome.

By me, her changeful fate was tried,Her honour was my dearest pride,I for it liv'd, and with it died.

Nor shall my vengeance he withstood,Nor unattended with a floodOf Roman and Egyptian blood;

Cæsar himself it shall pursue,His days shall troubled be, and few,And he shall fall by treason too.

He, by seventy divine,Shall swell the offerings at my shrine,As I was his, he shall be mine.

Regret thy woes, my Love, no more,For Fate shall waft thee soon ashore,And to thy Pompey, thee restore;

Where, past the fears of sad removes,We'll entertain our deathless loves,In beauteous and immortal groves:

There, none a tyrant's crown shall wear,No Cæsar be dictator there,Nor shall Cornelia shed a tear.

"If some faint love of goodness glow in me,Pure Spirit! I first caught that flame from thee."

"What tho' we wade in wealth, or soar in fame?Earth's highest station ends in, here he lies,And "dust to dust!" concludes her noblest song."