Classic Poem

Still may this morn with fairest lustre rise,
And find thee still more happy and more wise:
The smiling year with some new pleasure crown;
And add some virtue to the past unknown;
E'en that, whose future progress shall deface
The transient pride of each external grace,
Survey the soul more beauteous, young, and gay,
And chearful to the latest natal day,
Which gilds the ruins of declining age,
And lights it safely to it's farthest stage.

Where roses blush, and soft-wing'd Zephyrs play,
Thro' P LEASURE'S walks if Youth unbounded stray,
Enjoy each product of the vernal hour,
Seize ev'ry green, and rifle ev'ry flow'r;
Tho' with each smiling hue the garland bloom,
And fortune add her variegated plume,
How soon, alas! the gay fantastic wreath
Must wither on the pallid brow of D EATH !
It's languid sweets in mournful dust be laid,
And all it's unreviving colours fade!

Thus the false forms of vanity descend,
And in the gloom of long oblivion end:
Unreal phantoms, empty, void of pow'r,
Borne on the fleeting pinions of an hour!
Desert in death the disappointed mind,
Nor leave a trace of happiness behind!

O blest with talents fitted to obtain
What wild unthinking folly seeks in vain,
To whom, peculiarly indulgent, heav'n
The noblest means of happiness has giv'n,
From joys unfixt, that in possession die,
From F ALSHOOD'S path, my dear N ARCISSA , fly.
See faith with steady light direct the road
That leads unerring to the sov'reign G OOD :
See virtue's hand immortal joys bestow,
That ever new in fair succession blow,
Nor dread, secure of undecaying bloom,
The ineffectual winter of the tomb.

Such sure rewards the happy choice attend
Form'd on our nature's origin and end.
Pure from th' eternal source of Being came
That ray divine, that lights the human frame:
Yet oft, forgetful of it's heav'nly birth,
It sinks obscur'd beneath the weight of earth:
Mechanic pow'rs retard it's flight, and hence
The storms of P ASSION , and the clouds of S ENSE :
'Tis life's great task their influence to controul,
And keep the native splendor of the soul:
From false desires which wild O PINION frames,
From raging F OLLY'S inconsistent schemes,
To guard it safe, by those unerring laws,
That re-unite it to it's first great cause.

To this bright mark may all thy actions tend,
And heav'n succeed the wishes of a friend,
Whose faithful love directs it's tender cares
Beyond the flight of momentary years:
Beyond the grave, where vulgar passions end,
To future worlds it's nobler views extend,
Which soon each imperfection must remove,
And ev'ry charm of friendship shall improve.
'Till then, the muse essays the tuneful art,
To fix her moral lesson on thy heart,
Illume thy soul with virtue's brightest flame,
And point it to that heav'n from whence it came.