Alas! that pang will be severe,
Which bids us part, to meet
no more;
Which tears me far from one so
dear,
Departing for a distant
shore.
Well! we have pass’d some happy
hours,
And joy will mingle with our
tears;
When thinking on these ancient towers,
The shelter of our infant
years.
Where from this gothic casement’s
height,
We view’d the lake,
the park, the dell,
And still though tears obstruct our sight,
We lingering look a last farewell.—
O’er fields, through which we us’d
to run,
And spend the hours in childish
play,
O’er shades where, when our race
was done,
Reposing on my breast you
lay,
Whilst I, admiring, too remiss,
Forgot to scare the hovering
flies,
Yet envied every fly the kiss,
It dar’d to give your
slumbering eyes.
See still the little painted bark,
In which I row’d you
o’er the lake;
See there, high waving o’er the
park,
The elm, I clamber’d
for your sake.
These times are past, our joys are gone,
You leave me, leave this happy
vale;
These scenes, I must retrace alone,
Without thee, what will they
avail.
Who can conceive, who has not prov’d,
The anguish of a last embrace?
When torn from all you fondly lov’d,
You bid a long adieu to peace.
This is the deepest of our woes,
For this, these tears
our cheeks bedew,
This is of love the final close,
Oh GOD! the fondest, last
adieu!
1805.
* * * * *
FRAGMENTS OF SCHOOL EXERCISES, FROM THE PROMETHEUS VINCTUS OF AESCHYLUS.
Great Jove! to whose Almighty Throne,
Both Gods and mortals homage pay,
Ne’er may my soul thy power disown,
Thy dread behests ne’er disobey.
Oft shall the sacred victim fall,
In sea-girt Ocean’s mossy hall;
My voice shall raise no impious strain,
’Gainst him who rules the sky and azure main.
* * * * *
How different now thy joyless fate,
Since first Hesione thy bride,
When plac’d aloft in godlike state,
The blushing beauty by thy side.
Thou sat’st, while reverend Ocean smil’d,
And mirthful strains the hours beguil’d;
The nymphs and Tritons danc’d around,
Nor yet thy doom was fix’d nor Jove relentless
frown’d.
HARROW, December 1, 1804.
* * * * *
LINES IN “LETTERS OF AN ITALIAN NUN AND AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN,” BY J.J. ROUSSEAU, FOUNDED ON FACTS.
Away, away,—your flattering
arts,
May now betray some simpler hearts;
And you will smile at their
believing,
And they shall weep at your
deceiving.