Classic Poem

A WAY from my heart and my haunts, Dissipation!—
Away, for thy smiles are less sweet than before;
Thou temptest in vain, for thy guilty libation
Bewilders my soul and my senses no more!

Oh! curs'd was the hour when thy cup stood before me,
All sparkling with light, and allured me to taste;
For thy spirit of folly and frenzy came o'er me,
And the feelings of virtue were running to waste.

Since then I have lived with thy syren called Pleasure—
(Can Vice be allied with so gentle a name?)
My footsteps have trod each iniquitous measure,
Through mazes of ruin, disorder, and shame.

I have shared all the drunkard's revolting excesses,
The fiend and the brute gleaming fierce in my eyes;
I have smiled at the harlot's dissembling caresses,
And fed on her loathsome and treacherous sighs.

I have sported with Woman's confiding affection,—
Exulted and triumphed o'er purity's fall;
And the pangs that awake in that one recollection,
Imbue every thought—every feeling—with gall.

Shall the wife who despite of my injuries loves me,
Receive undeserving reproaches and pain?
Shall the wife who in sorrow and kindness reproves me,
Appeal to my heart and my judgment in vain?

Ah, no! to the dictates of truth and of reason,
Again, even now, let my ear be inclined;
Some Angel of Pity may bring back the season
Of long-banished virtue and peace to my mind

Away with the soul-sinking draught that enslaved me—
A slumberless monitor bids me beware;
One drop from the Fountain of Mercy hath saved me
A life of transgression—a death of despair.

Henceforth let the dear ones of home come around me,
With words of affection, and smiles of delight;
Let me cherish those ties by which Nature hath bound me,
The Sober Man's pleasures are boundless and bright.