SESTINA.
I WANDERED o'er the vast green plains of youth, And searched for Pleasure. On a distant height Fame's silhouette stood sharp against the skies. Beyond vast crowds that thronged a broad highway I caught the glimmer of a golden goal, While from a blooming bower smiled siren Love.
Straight gazing in her eyes, I laughed at Love, With all the haughty insolence of youth, As past her bower I strode to seek my goal. "Now will I climb to glory's dizzy height," I said," for there above the common way Doth pleasure dwell companioned by the skies."
But when I reached that summit near the skies, So far from man I seemed, so far from Love— "Not here," I cried, "doth Pleasure find her way," Seen from the distant borderland of youth. Fame smiles upon us from her sun-kissed height, But frowns in shadows when we reach the goal.