Let her think what odd whimsies I have in my brain, When I read one page over and over again,
And discover at last that I read it in vain.
Let her say why so fixed and so steady my look, Without ever regarding the person who spoke, Still affecting to laugh, without hearing the joke.
Or why when with pleasure her praises I hear (That sweetest of melody sure to my ear), I attend, and at once inattentive appear.
And lastly, when summoned to drink to my flame, Let her guess why I never once mention her name, Though herself and the woman I love are the same.
TO DELIA, PRAYING FOR FORGIVENESS
SEE where the Thames, the purest stream That wavers to the noon-day beam, Divides the vale below; While like a vein of liquid ore His waves enrich the happy shore, Still shining as they flow!
Nor yet, my Delia, to the main Runs the sweet tide without a stain Unsullied as it seems;
The nymphs of many a sable flood Deform with streaks of oozy mud The bosom of the Thames.
Some idle rivulets, that feed And suckle every noisome weed, A sandy bottom boast; For ever bright, for ever clear, The trifling shallow rills appear In their own channel lost.
Thus fares it with the human soul Where copious floods of passion roll, By genuine love supplied; Fair in itself the current shows, But ah! a thousand anxious woes Pollute the noble tide.
These are emotions known to few ; For where at most a vapoury dew Surrounds the tranquil heart, There, as the triflers never prove The glad excess of real love, They never prove the smart.
Oh then, my life, at last relent ! Though cruel the reproach I sent, My sorrow was unfeigned : Your passion, had I loved you not, You might have scorned, renounced, forgot, And I had ne'er complained.
While you indulge a groundless fear, The imaginary woes you bear
Are real woes to me :
But thou art kind, and good thou art, Nor wilt, by wronging thine own heart, Unjustly punish me.
TO DELIA, DECLARING THAT HER LOVE IS ALL HE NEEDS FOR
How blest the youth whom Fate ordains
A kind relief from all his pains
In some admired fair
Whose tenderest wishes find expressed
Their own resemblance in her breast,
Exactly copied there!
What good soe'er the gods dispense, The enjoyment of its influence
Still on her love depends;
Her love the shield that guards his heart, Or wards the blow, or blunts the dart, That peevish Fortune sends.
Thus, Delia, while thy love endures, The flame my happy breast secures From Fortune's fickle power; Change as she list, she may increase But not abate my happiness,
Confirmed by thee before.
Thus while I share her smiles with thee, Welcome, my love, shall ever be
The favours she bestows;
Yet not on those I found my bliss, But in the noble ecstasies
The faithful bosom knows.
And when she prunes her wings for flight, And flutters nimbly from my sight, Contented I resign
Whate'er she gave; thy love alone I can securely call my own,
Happy while that is mine.
ON HER ENDEAVOURING TO CONCEAL HER GRIEF AT Parting
AH! wherefore should my weeping maid suppress Those gentle signs of undissembled woe? When from soft love proceeds the deep distress, Ah! why forbid the willing tears to flow?
Since for my sake each dear translucent drop Breaks forth, best witness of thy truth sincere, My lips should drink the precious mixture up, And, ere it falls, receive the trembling tear.
Trust me, these symptoms of thy faithful heart In absence shall my dearest hope sustain; Delia ! since such thy sorrow that we part, Such when we meet thy joy shall be again.
Hard is that heart and unsubdued by love That feels no pain, nor ever heaves a sigh ; Such hearts the fiercest passions only prove, Or freeze in cold insensibility.
Oh! then indulge thy grief, nor fear to tell
The gentle source from whence thy sorrows flow; Nor think it weakness when we love to feel, Nor think it weakness what we feel to show.
THE LOVER'S HEART IN ABSENCE
BID adieu, my sad heart, bid adieu to thy peace! Thy pleasure is past, and thy sorrows increase; See the shadows of evening how far they extend, And a long night is coming, that never may end; For the sun is now set that enlivened the scene, And an age must be past ere it rises again.
Already deprived of its splendour and heat,
I feel thee more slowly, more heavily beat;
Perhaps, overstrained with the quick pulse of pleasure, Thou art glad of this respite to beat at thy leisure ; But the sigh of distress shall now weary thee more Than the flutter and tumult of passion before.
The heart of a lover is never at rest,
With joy overwhelmed, or with sorrow oppressed: When Delia is near, all is ecstasy then,
And I even forget I must lose her again : When absent, as wretched as happy before, Despairing I cry "I shall see her no more!"
WRITTEN AFTER LEAVING HER AT NEW BURNS
How quick the change from joy to woe! How chequered is our lot below! Seldom we view the prospect fair, Dark clouds of sorrow, pain, and care (Some pleasing intervals between) Scowl over more than half the scene. Last week with Delia, gentle maid, Far hence in happier fields I strayed, While on her dear enchanting tongue Soft sounds of grateful welcome hung, For absence had withheld it long. "Welcome, my long-lost love," she said, "E'er since our adverse fates decreed That we must part, and I must mourn Till once more blessed by thy return, Love, on whose influence I relied For all the transports I enjoyed, Has played the cruel tyrant's part And turned tormentor to my heart. But let me hold thee to my breast, Dear partner of my joy and rest, And not a pain, and not a fear Or anxious doubt, shall enter there." Happy, thought I, the favoured youth Blest with such undissembled truth! Five suns successive rose and set, And saw no monarch in his state, Wrapped in the blaze of majesty, So free from every care as I.
Next day the scene was overcast; Such day till then I never passed, For on that day, relentless fate !— Delia and I must separate.
Yet, ere we looked our last farewell, From her dear lips this comfort fell : "Fear not that time, where'er we rove, Or absence, shall abate my love." And can I doubt, my charming maid, As unsincere what you have said? Banished from thee to what I hate, Dull neighbours and insipid chat, No joy to cheer me, none in view, But the dear hope of meeting you ; And that, through passion's optic seen, With ages interposed between ; Blessed with the kind support you give, 'Tis by your promised truth I live; How deep my woes, how fierce my flame, You best may tell who feel the same. At Berkhamstead.
ALL-WORSHIPPED Gold! thou mighty mystery! Say by what name shall I address thee rather, Our blessing, or our bane? Without thy aid The generous pangs of pity but distress
The human heart that fain would feel the bliss Of blessing others; and, enslaved by thee, Far from relieving woes which others feel, Misers oppress themselves. Our blessing then With virtue when possessed; without, our bane. If in my bosom unperceived there lurk The deep-sown seeds of avarice or ambition, Blame me, ye great ones (for I scorn your censure), But let the generous and the good commend me That to my Delia I direct them all,
The worthiest object of a virtuous love. Oh! to some distant scene, a willing exile From the wild uproar of this busy world, Were it my fate with Delia to retire ; With her to wander through the sylvan shade, Each morn, or o'er the moss-imbrownèd turf, Where, blest as the prime parents of mankind In their own Eden, we would envy none,
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