The Bijou;
or Annual of Literature and the Arts
compiled by William Fraser
London: William Pickering,
1828
pp. pp. 24-25
| FRESH clad from heaven in robes of white, | 1 |
| A young probationer of light, | 2 |
| Thou wert, my soul, an Album bright. | 3 |
| A spotless leaf; but thought, and care — | 4 |
| And friends and foes, in foul or fair, | 5 |
| Have "written strange defeature" there. | 6 |
| And time, with heaviest hand of all, | 7 |
| Like that fierce writing on the wall, | 8 |
| Hath stamp'd sad dates — he can't recall. | 9 |
| And error, gilding worst designs — | 10 |
| Like speckled snake that strays and shines — | 11 |
| Betrays his path by crooked lines. | 12 |
| And vice hath left his ugly blot — | 13 |
| And good resolves, a moment hot, | 14 |
| Fairly began — but finished not. | 15 |
| A fruitless late remorse doth trace — | 16 |
| Like Hebrew lore, a backward pace — | 17 |
| Her irrecoverable race. | 18 |
[Page 25]
| Disjointed numbers — sense unknit — | 19 |
| Huge reams of folly — shreds of wit — | 20 |
| Compose the mingled mass of it. | 21 |
| My scalded eyes no longer brook, | 22 |
| Upon this ink- blurr'd thing to look. | 23 |
| Go — shut the leaves — and clasp the book! — | 24 |