A little solitary flickering lamp
With sickly radiance glimmered through the gloom,
While on a tattered couch an old man lay,
Half-starved with hunger, weary, gaunt, and gray.
His feeble eyes with ardor yet were strained
Upon a yellow parchment dull with age,
As, while one lingering ray of life remained,
That single ray must shine on Learning's page;
And while he lay immersed in study deep,
He murmured thus, as one who speaks in sleep:—