[LINES TO FITZ-GREENE HALLECK.]
ON READING 'FORGET-ME-NOT,' IN THE JULY KNICKERBOCKER.
BY CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN.
I.
When spring-time fancies haunt the brain,
Or cluster round the young heart's shrine,
No sadness clogs the dreamer's strain,
To bid him o'er his lot repine:
By Love's first fantasies oppressed,
He hies him to some stream-laved spot,
And sighs along the blue-flower's breast,
'Forget-me-not! forget-me-not!'
II.
To manhood's sterner cares allied,
The image lords it o'er his will;
In vain the struggles of his pride,
The form and features haunt him still.
His pillow sought, the toils of life,
Trade, strifes, defeats, all are forgot,
While with one theme his dream is rife:
'Forget-me-not! forget-me-not!'
III.
Poor dreamer! like his fleeting years,
The autumn of his fond desires
Pours disappointment's icy tears,
To quench his youth's delusive fires.
Within his heart, time and despair,
To foil his hopes triumphant plot;
Unmoved at his unceasing prayer,
'Forget-me-not! forget-me-not!'