At one of the annual Banquets given in Guildhall.
Gorgeous and splendid was the sight;
From myriad lamps a fairy light
Enshrin’d in wreaths the Gothic wall,
And heav’nly music fill’d the hall!
But there was one—(alas! that I
Had ever seen)—the melody
Her voice surpassed, and brighter far
Her eyes than ev’ry mimic star!
I gaz’d, until, oh! thought divine!
I fancied she I saw was mine;
But soon the beauteous vision flew—
The stranger-form I lov’d withdrew.
Yet still she lives within my breast,
There mem’ry has her form imprest:—
Thus, when some minstrel’s strain is done,
Sounds seem to breathe, for ever gone!