73. Dreams
               | 
            
            
              {131} 
                       OH! miserable power | 
            
            
              | To dreams allow'd, to raise the guilty past, | 
            
            
              | And back awhile the illumined spirit to cast | 
            
            
              |        On its youth's twilight
                hour; | 
            
            
              | In mockery guiling it to act again | 
            
            
              | The revel or the scoff in Satan's frantic train! | 
            
            
               
                       Nay, hush thee, angry
                heart! | 
            
            
              | An Angel's grief ill fits a penitent; | 
            
            
              | Welcome the thorn—it is divinely sent, | 
            
            
              |        And with its wholesome
                smart | 
            
            
              | Shall pierce thee in thy virtue's palmy home, | 
            
            
              And warn thee what thou art, and whence thy 
                       wealth has come. | 
            
            
               
                Pæstum. 
                February  26, 1833. |