To a Friend

Portrait of William Lisle Bowles
William Lisle Bowles 1762–1850

Go, then, and join the murmuring city's throng! Me thou dost leave to solitude and tears; To busy phantasies, and boding fears, Lest ill betide thee; but 't will not be long Ere the hard season shall be past; till then Live happy; sometimes the forsaken shade Remembering, and these trees now left to fade; Nor, mid the busy scenes and hum of men, Wilt thou my cares forget: in heaviness To me the hours shall roll, weary and slow, Till mournful autumn past, and all the snow Of winter pale, the glad hour I shall bless That shall restore thee from the crowd again, To the green hamlet on the peaceful plain.

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