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Home  »  Specimens of American Poetry  »  Samuel Low (b. 1765)

Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829.

By To a Segar

Samuel Low (b. 1765)

SWEET antidote to sorrow, toil and strife,

Charm against discontent and wrinkled care.

Who knows thy power can never know despair;

Who knows thee not, one solace lacks of life:

When cares oppress, or when the busy day

Gives place to tranquil eve, a single puff

Can drive even want and lassitude away,

And give a mourner happiness enough.

From thee when curling clouds of incense rise,

They hide each evil that in prospect lies;

But when in evanescence fades thy smoke,

Ah! what, dear sedative, my cares shall smother?

If thou evaporate, the charm is broke,

Till I, departing taper, light another.