Love caught me (yet a little boy),
And bound me with his chains of joy;
Then with his fillet sealed mine eyes,
To all life's dark realities,
And left me blind to wander through
The maze of earth, without a clue;
But pitying my forsaken plight,
Kind Fancy left the halls of light-
Love's sister, who, with gentlest art,
Extracts her cruel brother's dart,
And heals the lover's bleeding heart.
She came, and led me by the hand
Throughout Romance's fairy land,
Up Fame's rough mountain bade me climb,
And with the eagle mount sublime
The stormy winds, and strike the lyre
Shrined in the lightning's vivid fire;
There would I echo every hymn
Of the night-watching seraphim;
And as the strings my touch beneath
Rang forth sweet music's mellow breath,
Mine eyes grew founts, whence hotly swept
Tears that 'twas rapture to have wept.
Oh! had I from that cloud-paved height
Beheld misfortune's gath'ring night,
The shadow of each coming year,
That crushes hope and fosters fear,
How gladly had my half-freed soul
Flung off mortality's control,
And left so dark a world as this,
To dwell for aye in realms of bliss!