THE HECTIC.Upon the breezy cliff’s impending brow,With trembling step, the Hectic paus’d awhile;As round his wasted form the sea-breeze blew,His flush’d cheek brighten’d with a transient smile:Refresh’d and cherish’d by its balmy breath,He dreamt of future bliss, of years to come;Whilst, with a look of woe, the spectre, Death,Oft shook his head, and pointed to his tomb.Such sounds as these escap’d his lab’ring breast:—“Sweet Health! thou wilt revisit this sad frame;Slumber shall bid these aching eyelids rest,And I shall live for love, perchance for fame.”Ah! poor enthusiast!—in the day’s declineA mournful knell was heard, and it was thine!
Upon the breezy cliff’s impending brow,With trembling step, the Hectic paus’d awhile;As round his wasted form the sea-breeze blew,His flush’d cheek brighten’d with a transient smile:Refresh’d and cherish’d by its balmy breath,He dreamt of future bliss, of years to come;Whilst, with a look of woe, the spectre, Death,Oft shook his head, and pointed to his tomb.Such sounds as these escap’d his lab’ring breast:—“Sweet Health! thou wilt revisit this sad frame;Slumber shall bid these aching eyelids rest,And I shall live for love, perchance for fame.”Ah! poor enthusiast!—in the day’s declineA mournful knell was heard, and it was thine!