VERSES
TO THE TOMB OF A FRIEND.
Dearer to me, thou pile of dust!
Tho’ with the wild flow’r simply crown’d,
Than the vast dome or beauteous bust,
By genius form’d, by wit renown’d.
Wave, thou wild flow’r! for ever wave,
O’er my lov’d relic of delight;
My tears shall bathe her green-rob’d grave
More than the dews of heav’n by night.
Methinks my Delia bids me go,
Says, “Florio, dry that fruitless tear!
Feed not a wild flow’r with thy woe,
Thy long-lov’d Delia is not here.
“No drop of feeling from her eye
Now starts to hear thy sorrows speak;
And, did thy bosom know one joy,
No smile would bloom upon her cheek.
“Pale, wan, and torpid, droops that cheek,
Whereon thy lip impress’d its red;
Those eyes, which Florio taught to speak,
Unnotic’d close amid the dead!”
True, true, too idly mourns this heart;
Why, Mem’ry, dost thou paint the past?
Why say you saw my Delia part,
Still press’d, still lov’d her, to the last?
Then, thou wild flow’r, for ever wave!
To thee this parting tear is given;
The sigh I offer at her grave
Shall reach my sainted love in heaven!