Alexandria Gazette

LINES TO MY SEGAR.

SI TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI.

Thy vapory curls, now sailing high,

Are evanescent as the sigh

That trembles at its very dawn,

And perishes as soon as born.

Thy changing ringlets in the dew,

Soon float away, like friendship too—

In gentle varied shapes above

They haste away like woman's love.

Ephemeral as beauty's smile,

Cheating the features for a while,

Alternate changing, insincere,

Wav'ring between a smile and tear,

Delusive as the darting star,

Emblem of man—my sweet Segar.

Long, long, thy light hath solaced me

And perish'd in its constancy,

And as thy balmy breath escapes

In its flowing, graceful shapes;

When often melancholy mood

I wander in my solitude,

To where with thee at night I've heard

The echo of the warbling bird,

And the gentle rippling rill,

Gingling from the grassy hill;

There beneath the moonlit skies

I've turn'd to thee my weary eyes,

Believing thou wert better far

Than love or hope—my sweet Segar.

I see thy little folds ignite,

I watch their last expiring light

Holding commune sweet with thee,

Reading the world's philosophy;

And when thy breath is flowing there,

Lingering and playing on the air,

I think of promises now broken,

I gaze on many a faithless token,

Whose donors fled when sorrows woke

Like the light ringlets of thy smoke.

And now pale emblem of our ties,

The one we love and sacrifice,

Thou art indeed our truest friend,

Constant and faithful to the end.

Yet when thy charms have all expired,

We turn from thee we once admired.

We turn from thee we've long enjoy'd,

The loathsome object we've destroyed;

And seek to find another star,

As thine grows dim—my sweet Segar.