[Page 104]

ON AN UNLOOKED-FOR SEPARATION FROM A FRIEND.

1 TRANSIENT proves our sweetest pleasure,
2 Short our moments of delight;
3 While we grasp the darling treasure,
4 O how rapid is its flight?
5 Oft at morn ourselves we flatter,
6 That our comforts wont decay:
7 Fortune lavish seems to scatter
8 Fairest flowers along our way.
9 But the change by night is galling;
10 We lament our doom severe:
11 Joys, like snows on Ailsa falling,
12 In a moment disappear.
[Page 105]
13 Such the plague of human nature,
14 Fond to trifle with our smart,
15 While we do escape the greater,
16 Little evils rend our heart.
17 I have lost no valu'd charter,
18 Nor lament a fickle swain;
19 But, alas! a friend's departure,
20 Fills my heart with piercing pain.
21 Pond'ring sharpens ev'ry arrow,
22 Sighing but augments my grief:
23 Now I mourn, o'erwhelm'd with sorrow,
24 But next hour may bring relief.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): ON AN UNLOOKED-FOR SEPARATION FROM A FRIEND.
Themes:
Genres: occasional poem

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Little, Janet, 1759-1813. The Poetical Works of Janet Little, the Scotch Milkmaid. Air: Printed by John & Peter Wilson, 1792, pp. 104-105.  (ESTC T126549) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Library of the University of California, Los Angeles.)

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Other works by Janet Little (later Richmond)