Let the Sunbeam be bright for the younger of days: 'Tis the light that should shine on a race that decays, When the Stars are on high and the dews on the ground, And the long shadow lingers the ruin around. 3. And the step that o'erechoes the gray floor of stone Falls sullenly now, for 'tis only my own; And sunk are the voices that sounded in mirth, And empty the goblet, and dreary the hearth. 4. And vain was each effort to raise and recall The brightness of old to illumine our Hall; And vain was the hope to avert our decline, And the fate of my fathers had faded to mine. 5. And theirs was the wealth and the fulness of Fame, And mine to inherit too haughty a name;[r] And theirs were the times and the triumphs of yore, And mine to regret, but renew them no more. 6. And Ruin is fixed on my tower and my wall, Too hoary to fade, and too massy to fall; It tells not of Time's or the tempest's decay,[s] But the wreck of the line that have held it in sway. _August_ 26, 1811. [First published in _Memoir_ of Rev. F. Hodgson, 1878, i. 187.] EPISTLE TO A FRIEND,[27] IN ANSWER TO SOME LINES EXHORTING THE AUTHOR TO BE CHEERFUL, AND TO "BANISH CARE." "Oh! banish care"--such ever be The motto of _thy_ revelry! Perchance of _mine,_ when wassail nights Renew those riotous delights, Wherewith the children of Despair Lull the lone heart, and "banish care." But not in Morn's reflecting hour, When present, past, and future lower, When all I loved is changed or gone, Mock with such taunts the woes of one, Whose every thought--but let them pass-- Thou know'st I am not what I was. But, above all, if thou wouldst hold Place in a heart that ne'er was cold, By all the powers that men revere, By all unto thy bosom dear, Thy joys below, thy hopes above, Speak--speak of anything but Love.