The APPARITION.

FROM that inevitable Shore,
 Wheer Styx's tremendous Waters roar,
 Thus wing'd with Vengeance lo I fly,
 And skim beneath the gloomy Sky. 
To you O false, O faithless Fair,
 (Yet tremble do — and wildly stare)
 To you this angry Visit's paid,
 To you once lov'd, but faithless Maid,
 Perhaps (too thin for mortal Eyes)
 You know me not in this Disguise;
 I ne'er was number'd with your Foes,
 But what I'm now, shall not disclose
 My Name (esteem'd by one or two)
 Was Mira — while I liv'd like you,
 Till your Unkindness cut the Twine
 Of Life, before its stated Time. 

And shou'd you ask to know the End
 Of her that once you call'd a Friend? 
Whether of Pleurisies she dy'd,
 Or in a parching Fever dry'd? 
Or pale Consumption sure and slow? 
Or Apoplexy's sudden Blow? 
'Twas none of these — no common Dart,
 That struck my unresisting Heart:
 The dire Distemper you shall hear,
 Then listen with attentive Ear. 
Did you not, Ah! did you not say,
 That you wou'd come the next fair Day
 To Mira's Dome? — rejoic'd to see
 At once the Butterflies and me? 
But now, Alas! (too late, I find)
 The promis'd Joys of human Kind,
 Inconstant as the flitting Wind:
 You came not — That I need not tell. 
But then, O then your Mira fell,
 That fatal Day expecting you;
 I swept my House, and din'd by Two,
 Took off the Night-Cap from my Brow,
 (O Pride!) but I repent it now:
 (Ambitious her I lov'd to please)
 And, Ah! too straitly lac'd my Stays;
 Then silent sate 'twixt Hopes and Fears,
 With beating Heart and list'ning Ears,
 Till the shrill Clock had sounded four;
 Then wretched Mira was no more:
 Her Cheeks put on a death-like Hue,
 Her Eye-balls bid this World Adieu:
 And tho' untouch'd by Cupid's Dart,
 She perish'd with a broken Heart. 

But I have done — Farewel, for I
 From this corporeal World must fly:
 So the relentless Fates decree,
 Once more Farewel — Remember Me.