Classic Poem

Fancy! Fancy! let me be!
Cease to jibe and jeer at me!
Old friend, you are no longer kind.
Why make a league with Discontent?
My eyes to present good you blind,
And weave an artful tapestry
Of pictured joys and beauties blent,
Eerie with what can never be,
An elfish glamour over all,
Fitful and fantastical,
Bewildering, and rich and strange,
With tints of wild, elusive hope,
As intricate and prone to change
As forms of a kaleidoscope.

Dear Fancy, let this fooling end!
I long to keep you for my friend,
To fling a rainbow now and then
Blithely across my spirit's heaven;
With shapes too fine for mortal ken
To limn the painted skies of even;
Or in dark winter months to throw
A summer landscape o'er the snow.

But, wilful fairy, tempt me not
To think, to do — I know not what;
Do not you my pleasures wrong
With your deluding siren song,
And poisoned whisper, " Better far
The gifts in my bestowal are! "
Or kindle longings in my frame
That like a sudden-leaping flame
Scorch and shrivel and destroy
Glad Innocence, and Peace, and Joy.

Come with looks serene and fair,
And a mild, engaging air;
Then, if you give a hand to Trust
And one to Honor, do your will:
Freak and frolic if you must,
But be a friend to Reason still.
Or come, as erst, in quaintest guise,
And let enjoyment light your eyes:
Like a hoyden, flushed and free,
Taking liberties with me:
Strip my sober working dress:
Deck me in all daintiness:
Dimple as you used to do,
And I will gayly go with you.
But shine with no uncanny gleam,
Like a tricksy, teasing sprite,
Or a will-o'-the-wisp at night
Dancing up a sluggish stream.
Keep the thoughts I should not think,
Keep the dreams I dare not dream;
And do not sport so near the brink
Of that wild chasm, scarped and steep,
Where late you sported in my sleep.