Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ELEGIAC STANZAS, SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN BY JULIA, ON DEATH OF BROTHER, by THOMAS MOORE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ELEGIAC STANZAS, SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN BY JULIA, ON DEATH OF BROTHER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Though sorrow long has worn my heart
Last Line: The heart is almost broken too!
Alternate Author Name(s): Little, Thomas
Subject(s): Brothers; Death; Half-brothers; Dead, The


THOUGH sorrow long has worn my heart;
Though every day I've counted o'er
Has brought a new and quickening smart
To wounds that rankled fresh before;

Though in my earliest life bereft
Of many a link by nature tied;
Though hope deceived, and pleasure left;
Though friends betray'd, and foes belied;

I still had hopes -- for hope will stay
After the sunset of delight;
So like the star which ushers day,
We scarce can think it heralds night!

I hoped that, after all its strife,
My weary heart at length should rest,
And, fainting from the waves of life,
Find harbour in a brother's breast.

That brother's breast was warm with truth
Was bright with honour's purest ray;
He was the dearest, gentlest youth --
Oh! why then was he torn away?

He should have stay'd, have linger'd here,
To calm his Julia's every woe;
He should have chased each bitter tear,
And not have caused those tears to flow.

We saw his youthful soul expand
In blooms of genius, nursed by taste;
While Science, with a fostering hand,
Upon his brow her chaplet placed.

We saw his gradual opening mind
Enrich'd by all the graces dear;
Enlighten'd, social, and refined,
In friendship firm, in love sincere.

Such was the youth we loved so well;
Such were the hopes that fate denied --
We loved, but, ah! we could not tell
How deep, how dearly, till he died!

Close as the fondest links could strain,
Twined with my very heart he grew;
And by that fate which breaks the chain,
The heart is almost broken too!





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