Hope Was but a timid friend;<br />She sat without the grated den,<br />Watching how my fate would tend,<br />Even as selfish-hearted men.<br /><br />She was cruel in her fear;<br />Through the bars one dreary day,<br />I looked out to see her there,<br />And she turned her face away!<br /><br />Like a false guard, false watch keeping,<br />Still, in strife, she whispered peace;<br />She would sing while I was weeping;<br />If I listened, she would cease.<br /><br />False she was, and unrelenting;<br />When my last joys strewed the ground,<br />Even Sorrow saw, repenting,<br />Those sad relics scattered round;<br /><br />Hope, whose whisper would have given<br />Balm to all my frenzied pain,<br />Stretched her wings, and soared to heaven,<br />Went, and ne'er returned again!