CANTO FIRST.Come, sit thee by me, love, and thou shalt hearA tale may win a smile and claim a tear--A plain and simple story told in rhyme,As sang the minstrels of the olden time.No idle Muse I'll needlessly invoke--No patron's aid, to steer me from the rockOf cold neglect round which oblivion lies;But, loved one, I will look into thine eyes,From which young poesy first touched my soul,And bade the burning words in numbers roll;--They were the light in which I learned to sing;And still to thee will kindling fancy cling--Glow at thy smile, as when, in younger years,I've seen thee smiling through thy maiden tears,Like a fair floweret bent with morning dew,While sunbeams kissed its leaves of loveliest hue.Thou wert the chord and spirit of my lyre--Thy love the living voice that breathed--"aspire!"--That smoothed ambition's steep and toilsome height,And in its darkest paths was round me, light.Then, sit thee by me, love, and list the strain,Which, but for thee, had still neglected lain.