And deem’d the marriage-bond the bane of love.
What age and sickness, for a man so bold,
Had done, we know not; - none beheld him old;
By night, as business urged, he sought the wood; -
The ditch was deep, - the rain had caused a flood, -
The foot-bridge fail’d, - he plunged beneath the deep,
And slept, if truth were his, th’eternal sleep.
These have we named; on life’s rough sea they sail,
With many a prosperous, many an adverse gale!
Where passion soon, like powerful winds, will rage,