Oh Think Not My Spirits Are Always as Light

OH! think not my spirits are always as light
And as free from a pang as they seem to you now
Nor expect that the heart-beaming smile of to-night
Will return with to-morrow to brighten my brow
No: — life is a waste of wearisome hours
Which seldom the rose of enjoyment adorns;
And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers
Is always the first to be touch’d by the thorns
But send round the bowl, and be happy awhile —
May we never meet worse, in our pilgrimage here
Than the tear that enjoyment may gild with a smile
And the smile that compassion can turn to a tear
The thread of our life would be dark, Heaven knows
If it were not with friendship and love intertwined;
And I care not how soon I may sink to repose
When these blessing shall cease to be dear to my mind
But they who have loved the fondest, the purest
Too often have wept o’er the dream they believed;
And the heart that has slumber’d in friendship securest
Is happy indeed if 'twas never deceived
But send round the bowl; while a relic of truth
Is in man or in woman, this prayer shall be mine, —
That the sunshine of love may illumine our youth
And the moonlight of friendship console our decline