Night! oh, what bliss were the night! 
For then thou o’ershadow’st the lustre,
Dazzling and fair, of the moon.

Dazzling and beauteous art thou,
And flowers, and moon, and the planets
Homage pay, Sun, but to thee.

Sun! to me also be thou
Creator of days bright and glorious;
Life and Eternity this!

1813.
-----
To the distant one.

And have I lost thee evermore?

Hast thou, oh fair one, from me flown? 
Still in mine ear sounds, as of yore,

Thine ev’ry word, thine ev’ry tone.

As when at morn the wand’rer’s eye

Attempts to pierce the air in vain,
When, hidden in the azure sky,

The lark high o’er him chaunts his strain: 

So do I cast my troubled gaze

Through bush, through forest, o’er the lea;
Thou art invoked by all my lays;

Oh, come then, loved one, back to me!

1789.*
-----
By the river.

Flow on, ye lays so loved, so fair,

On to Oblivion’s ocean flow! 
May no rapt boy recall you e’er,

No maiden in her beauty’s glow!

My love alone was then your theme,

But now she scorns my passion true. 
Ye were but written in the stream;

As it flows on, then, flow ye too!

1798.*
-----
Farewell.

To break one’s word is pleasure-fraught,

To do one’s duty gives a smart;
While man, alas! will promise nought,

That is repugnant to his heart.

Using some magic strains of yore,

Thou lurest him, when scarcely calm,
On to sweet folly’s fragile bark once more,

Renewing, doubling chance of harm.

Why seek to hide thyself from me?

Fly not my sight—­be open then! 
Known late or early it must be,

And here thou hast thy word again.

My duty is fulfill’d to-day,

No longer will I guard thee from surprise;
But, oh, forgive the friend who from thee turns away,

And to himself for refuge flies!

1797.
-----
The exchange.

The stones in the streamlet I make my bright pillow,
And open my arms to the swift-rolling billow,

That lovingly hastens to fall on my breast. 
Then fickleness soon bids it onwards be flowing;
A second draws nigh, its caresses bestowing,—­

And so by a twofold enjoyment I’m blest.

And yet thou art trailing in sorrow and sadness
The moments that life, as it flies, gave for gladness,

Because by thy love thou’rt remember’d no more! 
Oh, call back to mind former days and their blisses! 
The lips of the second will give as sweet kisses

As any the lips of the first gave before!

1767-9.
-----
Welcome and farewell.

[Another of the love-songs addressed to Frederica.]