Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/The Tear
THE TEAR.
WHEN gentle pity moves the breast,
And claims for others' woes the sigh,
Or mild commiseration leads
To kinder deeds of charity,
Or the quick, feeling heart laments
The woes of those it holds most dear,
How graceful on the cheek is seen,
The pure and sympathetic tear.
Or when the page of life is dark,
And fled is every earthly trust,
When no kind comforter is near,
And the sad soul is in the dust,
Or when the bursting heart laments
O'er lost affection's silent bier;
At once to mark and sooth the grief
There flows the sorrow-starting tear.
There is indeed a grief that scorns
The channel of a watery eye,
But then it breaks the thread of life,
Or heats the brain to agony.
And Oh! preserve the friends I love,
From feeling such a pang severe,
And give them in their hour of woe
The secret solace of a tear.
Among the boasted joys of youth,
Fair friendship's form has met my view,
And fondly I retun'd her smile,
And still believ'd her promise true:
Yet I have felt, but ask me not,
What thus has chang'd my prospect drear,
And what has taught me so to prize
The treasure of a silent tear.