Classic Poem

ADDRESSED TO SOPHY, WHO BEGGED ME TO COMPOSE A ROMANCE TO
AMUSE HER .

Les romans

It is thy wish that I should write for thee
A long romance, that may effective be:
Against that wish my reason must rebel;
A long romance no more 'tis mine to tell.
When from life's dawn man finds himself so far,
All his romances of the shortest are:
Nor can I hope that long 'twill be my fate
Of love's romance to lengthen out the date.

Ah! happy he who in his mistress' mind
A sister's friendly sympathy can find!
Joy's wild delirium 'tis to thee I owe;
From thee the sweets of tenderest care I know
The well-drawn hero, the pretended sage,
In long romance our pity may engage;
But with some leaves of Friendship's soft romance
This, when compared, is scarcely worth a glance.

A dull romance our history needs would be;
But, Sophy, comfort in the thought I see,
That, in the course marked out for thee by Fate,
The Loves and Pleasures shall upon thee wait
Ah! may'st thou long, as fair and gay as now,
With crowns of flowers bedeck thy beauteous brow;
And never be it thine to shed one tear
O'er the romance that life presents us here!