Landon in The Literary Gazette 1826/World as it is

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Literary Gazette, 19th August, 1826, Pages 524-525


ORIGINAL POETRY.

THE WORLD AS IT IS.

Farewell, farewell, and light farewell
    Is all you'll have of mine—
So easily as I'm resign'd,
    So easy I resign.

Why should I shed a single tear,
    When none are shed for me?
Or sigh amid a careless crowd,
    Where sighs should never be?

Why should I love? a fair exchange
    Is all my love will give:
As I am loved, 'tis fair for that
    An equal love should live.

So, gay as any round your board,
    I'll give you smile for smile;
Though well I know that, taper-like,
    I shine but for a while.

Great foolishness it were to weep,
    That when I am not there,
Another takes my vacant place,
    And weeds me from your care.

I do not dwell amid the days
    Utopia may have known,
When that affection's dearest bands
    Were round the absent thrown.

I hold our modern creed the best—
    To its decree resigned,
I will confess, when out of sight
    Best to be out of mind.

For what can Memory do but tell
    How sweet the flowers were;
And when they fade, it dims them more
    To say they once were fair.

And what is Love?—A weary spell
    To double every ill—
To make our best of happiness
    Be at another's will.

No! careless laugh and mocking eye,
    That know no charm like change,
These are the only wings wherewith
    Through this slight world to range.
L. E. L.