Why, alas! is life decreed
Full of pain and full of sorrow?
All uncertain as it is,
Can we rest upon tomorrow?
Why should blessings yet in store,
Hold us still in expectation?
Leading thro' succeeding sorrows,
By some fond anticipation:
'Tis to give a tender interest
To the scenes in which we're moving:
While those hopes so often blasted,
Sensual pleasures are reproving.

"An Effusion", from Poems, on Various Occasions (1806)