When fortune on me shed her ray,
The gnats around me danced all day,
Plenty of friends then cherish’d me,
And all, in fashion brotherly,
My viands with me tasted,
And my last penny wasted.
Fortune has fled, and void is my purse,
My friends have left for better for worse,
Extinguish’d is each sunny ray,
Around me the gnats no longer play;
My friends and the gnats together
Have gone with the sunny weather.
Beside my bed in the winter night
Old Care as my nurse sits bolt upright;
She wears a habit that’s white enough,
A bonnet black, and takes her snuff.
The box is harshly creaking,
As the woman a pinch is seeking.
I often dream that the happy time
Of bliss has return’d, and May’s young prime,
And friendship, and all the gnats as well,—
When creaks the snuffbox,—and, sad to tell,
The bubble is straightway breaking,
While the nurse her snuff is taking.
15. TO THE ANGELS.
This is dread Thanatos indeed!
He comes upon his pale-white steed.
I hear its tread, I hear its trot,
The dusky horseman spares me not;
He tears me from Matilda’s fond embraces,—
This thought of woe all other thoughts effaces.
She was at once my child, my wife,
And when I quit this mortal life
An orphan’d widow will she be!
I leave alone on earth’s wide sea
The wife, the child, who, trusting to my guiding
Slept on my bosom, careless and confiding.
Ye angels in yon heavens so fair
Receive my sobs, receive my prayer!
When I am buried, from above
Protect the woman that I love!
Be shield and guardian to your own reflection,
Grant my poor child Matilda your protection!
By all the tears e’er shed by you
Over men’s woes in pity true,—
By that dread word that priests alone
Know, and ne’er breathe without a groan,
By all your beauty, gentleness, perfection,
Ye angels, grant Matilda your protection!