Yet may the slow-corroding canker kill,

While all around it smiles, it fadeth still;

Such is the thankless heart which—pleasure-cloyed—

Turns from surrounding good to fancied ill,

And forms within itself a cheerless void

’Mid blessings unacknowledged, pleasures unenjoyed.

Oh! deem ye not them sufferers alone

Whom poverty consumes, or cares oppress,

Who mourn o’er health departed, hopes o’erthrown,

Or—severed from a parent’s fond caress—