The Penitent Profligate

The Penitent Profligate

His eye, which once with sparkling lustre shone,
Was hollow, glazed and dim. The ruddy glow
Of health had left his cheek, and paleness death-like.
Had unsurp'd its place. His manly open brow,
Impress'd with early grief's said signet, wore a groom,
Tinct'ring his lineaments with settled melancholy.
Pensive he sat - with aching head reclining on his hands
And mind involv'd in agonizing thoughts:
Imagination's retrogressive principle,
Convey'd reflection to a backward glance;
With trembling he reviewed the past, and contrite tear drops,
Fell from his marble cheeks.
The dismal void of dark futurity he scan'd, -
His soul recoil'd with awful horror,
And he sigh'd a half articulate wish for dissolution.
No genial ray of hope, shed its effulgent gleam
O'er life's dreary waste: his youthful dreams of bliss,
Heighten'd by vivid Fancy's aid, had vanish'd
Like the faint remember'd dreams of infancy.
The strongest tie, which bound his soul to earth,
The bond of mutual love, was disunited,
And the idol of his adoration - scorn'd him!
His torn but faithful heart, beat true to is first pulse,
And the soft mellow voice of her he loved,
Still floated o'er the stream of mem'ry,
Recalling pictures of departed joys
The mansion of his childhood claim'd a thought:
In his mind's eye, he there beheld the suffering form
Of a fond doting mother; she stood a monument of meekness,
While his disappointed father, like a ministering spirit,
Poured into her wounded soul the balm of hope,
Which he himself possess'd not -----

The Penitent upraised his eyes, ---

A deep drawn sign escap'd him - and he pray'd
The God in whom he trusted to comfort his afflicted parents;
He pray'd for firmness to endure his misery - 
And sought forgetfulness of sorrow
In the oblivious arms of "NATURE'S NURSE."

J.T.E.

1:41, p. 164

1827.12.21