3.  Come to the festal board to-night,
     For friendship, there, with stronger chain,
   Devoted hearts already bound
     For good or ill, will bind again. 
                      I went.

4.  Nature and art their stores outpoured;
     Joy beamed in every kindling glance;
   Love, friendship, youth, and beauty smiled;
     What could that evening’s bliss enhance? 
                      We parted.

5.  And years have flown; but where are now
     The guests who round that table met? 
   Rises their sun as gloriously
     As on the banquet’s eve it set?

6.  How holds the chain which friendship wove? 
     It broke; and soon the hearts it bound
   Were widely sundered; and for peace,
     Envy and strife and blood were found.

7.  The merriest laugh which then was heard
     Has changed its tones to maniac screams,
   As half-quenched memory kindles up
     Glimmerings of guilt in feverish dreams.

8.  And where is she whose diamond eyes
     Golconda’s purest gems outshone? 
   Whose roseate lips of Eden breathed? 
     Say, where is she, the beauteous one?

9.  Beneath yon willow’s drooping shade,
     With eyes now dim, and lips all pale,
   She sleeps in peace.  Read on her urn,
   “A broken heart.”  This tells her tale.

10.  And where is he, that tower of strength,
      Whose fate with hers for life was joined? 
    How beats his heart, once honor’s throne? 
      How high has soared his daring mind?

11.  Go to the dungeon’s gloom to-night;
      His wasted form, his aching head,
    And all that now remains of him,
      Lies, shuddering, on a felon’s bed.

12.  Ask you of all these woes the cause? 
      The festal board, the enticing bowl,
    More often came, and reason fled,
      And maddened passions spurned control.

13.  Learn wisdom, then.  The frequent feast
      Avoid; for there, with stealthy tread
    Temptation walks, to lure you on,
      Till death, at last, the banquet spread.

14.  And shun, oh shun, the enchanted cup! 
      Though now its draught like joy appears,
    Ere long it will be fanned by sighs,
      And sadly mixed with blood and tears.

Definitions.—­1.  Fes’tal, mirthful, joyous.  Gar’land-ed, adorned with wreaths of flowers. 3.  De-vot’ed, solemnly set apart. 4.  En-hance’, increase. 6.  Sun’dered, separated. 7.  Glim’mer-ings, faint views, glimpses. 8.  Ro’se-ate, blooming, rosy. 11.  Fel’on, a public criminal. 12.  En-tic’ing, attracting to evil.  Spurned, rejected with disdain. 13.  Lure, to attract, to entice. 14.  En-chant’ed, affected with enchantment, bewitched.

Notes.—­8.  Golconda is an ancient city and fortress of India, formerly renowned for its diamonds.  They were merely cut and polished there, however, being generally brought from Parteall, a city farther south.