15.07.2007, 14:08
On Leaving School
Farewell, parental scenes! a sad farewell!
To you my grateful heart still foldly clings,
Though fluttering round on Fancy’s burnished wings,
Her tale of future joy Hope loves to tell.
Adieu, adieu! ye much-loved cloisters pale!
Ah! would those happy days return again,
when ‘neath your arches, free from every stain,
I heard of guilt, and wondered at the tale!
Dear haunts! where oft my simple lays I sang,
Listening meanwhile the echoing of my feet:
Lingering I quit you with as great a pang
As when, erewhile, my weeping childhood, torn
By early sorrow from my native seat,
Mingle its tears with hers, my widowed parent lorn
Farewell, parental scenes! a sad farewell!
To you my grateful heart still foldly clings,
Though fluttering round on Fancy’s burnished wings,
Her tale of future joy Hope loves to tell.
Adieu, adieu! ye much-loved cloisters pale!
Ah! would those happy days return again,
when ‘neath your arches, free from every stain,
I heard of guilt, and wondered at the tale!
Dear haunts! where oft my simple lays I sang,
Listening meanwhile the echoing of my feet:
Lingering I quit you with as great a pang
As when, erewhile, my weeping childhood, torn
By early sorrow from my native seat,
Mingle its tears with hers, my widowed parent lorn