Hope

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2> HOPE. </h2> <p> Hope Was but a timid friend;<br/> She sat without the grated den,<br/> Watching how my fate would tend,<br/> Even as selfish-hearted men.<br/> <br/> She was cruel in her fear;<br/> Through the bars one dreary day,<br/> I looked out to see her there,<br/> And she turned her face away!<br/> <br/> Like a false guard, false watch keeping,<br/> Still, in strife, she whispered peace;<br/> She would sing while I was weeping;<br/> If I listened, she would cease.<br/> <br/> False she was, and unrelenting;<br/> When my last joys strewed the ground,<br/> Even Sorrow saw, repenting,<br/> Those sad relics scattered round;<br/> <br/> Hope, whose whisper would have given<br/> Balm to all my frenzied pain,<br/> Stretched her wings, and soared to heaven,<br/> Went, and ne'er returned again!<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />