2 Chloris is gone, the cruel fair;
      She cast not back a pitying eye;
    But left her lover in despair,
      To sigh, to languish, and to die: 
    Ah, how can those fair eyes endure
    To give the wounds they will not cure?

  3 Great God of love, why hast thou made
      A face that can all hearts command,
    That all religions can evade,
      And change the laws of every land? 
    Where thou hadst placed such power before,
    Thou shouldst have made her mercy more.

  4 When Chloris to the temple comes,
      Adoring crowds before her fall;
    She can restore the dead from tombs,
      And every life but mine recall. 
    I only am by Love design’d
    To be the victim for mankind.

* * * * *

XI.

SONGS IN THE “INDIAN EMPEROR.”

  I.

  Ah, fading joy! how quickly art thou past! 
          Yet we thy ruin haste. 
  As if the cares of human life were few,
          We seek out new: 
  And follow Fate, which would too fast pursue. 
  See how on every bough the birds express,
    In their sweet notes, their happiness. 
    They all enjoy, and nothing spare;
    But on their mother Nature lay their care: 
  Why then should man, the lord of all below,
          Such troubles choose to know,
  As none of all his subjects undergo? 
  Hark, hark, the waters fall, fall, fall,
  And with a murmuring sound
  Dash, dash upon the ground,
          To gentle slumbers call.

  II.

  I look’d, and saw within the book of fate,
          When many days did lour,
          When lo! one happy hour
  Leap’d up, and smiled to save the sinking state;
    A day shall come when in thy power
          Thy cruel foes shall be;
          Then shall thy land be free: 
          And then in peace shall reign;
  But take, O take that opportunity,
  Which, once refused, will never come again.

* * * * *

XII.

SONG IN THE “MAIDEN QUEEN.”

  I feed a flame within, which so torments me,
  That it both pains my heart, and yet contents me: 
  ’Tis such a pleasing smart, and I so love it,
  That I had rather die than once remove it.

  Yet he for whom I grieve shall never know it: 
  My tongue does not betray, nor my eyes show it. 
  Not a sigh, not a tear, my pain discloses,
  But they fall silently, like dew on roses.

  Thus, to prevent my love from being cruel,
  My heart’s the sacrifice, as ’tis the fuel: 
  And while I suffer this to give him quiet,
  My faith rewards my love, though he deny it.

  On his eyes will I gaze, and there delight me;
  Where I conceal my love no frown can fright me: 
  To be more happy, I dare not aspire;
  Nor can I fall more low, mounting no higher.