Take back the virgin page.

WRITTEN ON RETURNING A BLANK BOOK.

Take back the virgin page,
White and unwritten still;
Some hand, more calm and sage,
The leaf must fill.

Thoughts come, as pure as light,

Pure as even you require:
But, oh! each word I write

Love turns to fire.

Yet let me keep the book:
Oft shall my heart renew,
When on its leaves I look,

Dear thoughts of you.
Like you, 'tis fair and bright,
Like you, too bright and fair
To let wild passion write

One wrong wish there.