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34
ON A FRIEND.
'Twas thine to feel the sympathetic glow
In Merit's joy, and Poverty's meek woe;
Thine all, that cheer the moment as it flies,
The zoneless Cares, and smiling Courtesies,
Nurs'd in thy heart the firmer Virtues grew,
And in thy heart they wither'd! Such chill dew
Wan Indolence on each young blossom shed;
And Vanity her filmy net-work spread,
With eye that roll'd around in asking gaze,
And tongue that traffick'd in the trade of praise.
Thy follies such! the hard world mark'd them well—
Were they more wise, the Proud who never fell?
Rest, injur'd shade! the poor man's prayer of praise
On heaven-ward wing thy wounded soul shall raise.
As oft at twilight gloom thy grave I pass,
And fit me down upon its' recent grass,
