2.

Yet precious seems each shattered part,

And every fragment dearer grown,

Since he who wears thee, feels thou art A fitter emblem of his own.

XIX.

[This poem and the following were written some years ago.]

To a Youthful Friend.

1.

Few years have passed since thou and I

Were firmest friends, at least in name, And childhood's gay sincerity

Preserved our feelings long the same.

2.

But now, like me, too well thou know'st

What trifles oft the heart recall;

And those who once have loved the most

Too soon forget they loved at all.

3.

And such the change the heart displays, So frail is early friendship's reign,

A month's brief lapse, perhaps a day's, Will view thy mind estranged again.

4.

If so, it never shall be mine

To mourn the loss of such a heart;

The fault was Nature's fault, not thine,

Which made thee fickle as thou art.

5.

As rolls the ocean's changing tide,

So human feelings ebb and flow;

And who would in a breast confide

Where stormy passions ever glow?

6.

It boots not, that together bred,

Our childish days were days of joy;

My spring of life has quickly fled;

Thou, too, hast ceased to be a boy.

7.

And when we bid adieu to youth,

Slaves to the specious world's controul,

We sigh a long farewell to truth;

That world corrupts the noblest soul.

8.

Ah, joyous season! when the mind

Dares all things boldly but to lie;

When thought ere spoke is unconfined, And sparkles in the placid eye.

9.

Not so in Man's maturer years,

When Man himself is but a tool;

When interest sways our hopes and fears, And all must love and hate by rule.

10.

With fools in kindred vice the same,

We learn at length our faults to blend,

And those, and those alone may claim

The prostituted name of friend.