Retrospect, 1

I’ve snuff’d at every smell that has birth
In this delightful kitchen of earth;
Each thing that the world contains that’s delicious
Have I enjoy’d like a hero ambitious;
I’ve drunk my coffee, and eaten with zest,
And many a charming doll caress’d,
Worn silken waistcoats and handsome coats,
And had my pockets well lined with notes;
The high horse, like Gellert the poet, I rode,
Had house and castle all à-la-mode.
On fortune’s verdant meadow I lay,
While on me the sun gleam’d brightly all day,
A wreath of laurel my brow embraced,
And through my brain sweet visions raced,
Sweet visions of endless May and flowers--
How happily fleeted then the hours,
So dim and hazy, so full of repose,--
My mouth was fill’d with whatever I chose,
And angels came, and out of their pockets
The champagne bottles flew like rockets,--
Bright visions were these,--soap-bubbles, alas!
They burst,--and I lie on the humid grass;
My limbs are now rheumatic and lame,
My inmost spirit is fill’d with shame.
Alas! each pleasure and gratification
I bought at the price of bitter vexation;
I’m steep’d in bitterness up to the chin,
The bugs have terribly bitten my skin;
Oppress’d by care and gloomy sorrow
I needs must lie, and I needs must borrow
From wealthy rascals, and slatterns vile,
I even believe that I begg’d for a while.
And now I would finish this wearisome race,
And find in the grave a resting-place.
Farewell! In yon heavens, good Christian brother,
Once more we may hope to meet with each other.