sappho redivivus—a fragment

by all i lov'd, neglected and forgot,

no friendly face e'er lights my squalid cot;

shunn'd, hated, wrong'd, unpitied, unredrest,

the mock'd "ation of the scorner's jest!

ev'n the poor support of my wretched life,

snatched by the violence of legal strife.

oft grateful for my very daily bread

to those my family's once large bounty fed;

a wee inmate at their homely fare,

my griefs, my woes, my sighs, my tears they share:

(their vulgar souls unlike the souls refin'd,

the fashioned marble of the polished mind).

in vain would prudence, with decorous sneer,

point out a censuring world, and bid me fear;

above the world, on wings of love, i rise—

i know its worst, and can that worst despise;

let prudence' direst bodements on me fall,

m[ontgomer]y, rich reward, o'erpays them all!

mild zephyrs waft thee to life's farthest shore,

nor think of me and my distress more,—

falsehood accurst! no! still i beg a place,