LOVE AND MADNESS, AN ELEGY. Written in 1795. HARK! from the battlements of yonder towerf The solemn bell has toll'd the midnight hour! "Cease, Memory, cease (the friendless mourner cried) To probe the bosom too severely tried! Oh! ever cease, my pensive thoughts, to stray Through the bright fields of Fortune's better day: † Warwick castle. When youthful Hope, the music of the mind, Tuned all its charms, and E -n was kind! "Yet, can I cease, while glows this trembling frame, In sighs to speak thy melancholy name? I hear thy spirit wail in every storm! In midnight shades I view thy passing form! "Demons of Vengeance! ye at whose command I grasp'd the sword with more than woman's hand, Say ye, did Pity's trembling voice controul, . Or Horror damp the purpose of my soul? No! my wild heart sat smiling o'er the plan, Till Hate fulfill'd what baffled Love began! |