Poem by Mary Robinson

Life

”What is this world?­thy school, O misery!
”Our only lesson is to learn to suffer.” 

- YOUNG. 


LOVE, thou sportive fickle boy, 
Source of anguish, child of joy, 
Ever wounding­ever smiling, 
Soothing still, and still beguiling; 
What are all thy boasted treasures, 
Tender sorrows, transient pleasures? 
Anxious hopes, and jealous fears, 
LAUGHING HOURS, and MOURNING YEARS. 

What is FRIENDSHIP’S soothing name?
But a shad’wy, vap’rish flame; 
Fancy’s balm for ev’ry wound, 
Ever sought, but rarely found; 
What is BEAUTY ? but a flow’r, 
Blooming, fading in an hour; 
Deck’d with brightest tints at morn, 
At twilight with’ring on a thorn; 
Like the gentle Rose of spring, 
Chill’d by ev’ry zephyr’s wing, 
Ah! how soon its colour flies, 
Blushes, trembles, falls, and dies. 

What is YOUTH ? a smiling sorrow, 
Blithe to day, and sad to-morrow; 
Never fix’d, for ever ranging, 
Laughing, weeping, doating, changing; 
Wild, capricious, giddy, vain, 
Cloy’d with pleasure, nurs’d with pain; 
AGE steals on with wint’ry face, 
Ev’ry rapt’rous Hope to chase; 
Like a wither’d, sapless tree, 
Bow’d to chilling Fate’s decree; 
Strip’d of all its foliage gay, 
Drooping at the close of day; 
What of tedious Life remains? 
Keen regrets and cureless pains; 
Till DEATH appears, a welcome friend, 
To bid the scene of sorrow end.

1. Ode to Reflection
2. The Lascar
3. Ode to Melancholy
4. Sonnet 14. Come, Soft Aeolian Harp
5. Sonnet 42. Oh! Canst Thou Bear

Abram Ryan Life ("A baby played with the surplice sleeve")

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