Poems / By James G. Percival.

  • Percival, James Gates, 1795-1856
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Poems / By James G. Percival. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    57/412 (page 47)
    Such are the wounds indulgent parents give, Who slay the smiling blossom of their love ; And if the blighted plant should lingering live, The spirit cannot wing its flight above, But in its restless agony will rove Still on and onward in forbidden joy, Till wildly, as a whirlwind’s fury drove, He rushes to the foes that soon destrov, And then they weep, and curse their lost, deluded boy. His friendship warmed to love—all things, that feel, In all his tenderness of feeling share; His love, bright as devotion’s holiest zeal, For sex, without its ill, has being there; All pleasure’s smile and virtue’s beauty wear, And kindred souls in dear communion blend, Love, purest love, without its sigh and care, And hand in hand their mounting way they wend, With hope that meets no chill, and joys that never end. Devotion—’t is an all-absorbing flame— The Omnipotent, all-perfect, endless Being, The builder of the universal frame, At one quick glance, past, present, future, seeing, By w hom, hot, cold, moist, dry, good, ill, agreeing. At last, the perfect birth of bliss comes forth, And evil to its native darkness fleeing, Virtue shines out in her unspotted worth, And blasts to meanest dust the proudest forms of earth.