Yet may my plaintive strain
unite
And mingle with
your dreaming,
And through the visions of
the night
Just interweave
my seeming.
Yet no! sleep on with fancy
free
In that untroubled
breast;
No song of mine, no thought
of me,
Deserves to break
your rest!
MAIDEN WITH THE GIPSY LOOK.
Maiden with the gipsy look,
Dusky locks and russet hue,
Open wide thy Sybil’s
book,
Tell my fate and tell it true;
Shall I live? or shall I die?
Timely wed, or single be?
Maiden with the gipsy eye,
Read my riddle unto me!
Maiden with the gipsy face,
If thou canst not tell me
all,
Tell me thus much, of thy
grace,
Should I climb, or fear to
fall?
Should I dare, or dread to
dare?
Should I speak, or silent
be?
Maiden with the gipsy hair,
Read my riddle unto me!
Maiden with the gipsy hair,
Deep into thy mirror look,
See my love and fortune there,
Clearer than in Sybil’s
book:
Let me cross thy slender palm,
Let me learn my fate from
thee;
Maiden with the gipsy charm,
Read my riddle unto me.
AH! WOULD I COULD FORGET.
The whispering water rocks
the reeds,
And, murmuring softly, laps
the weeds;
And nurses there the falsest
bloom
That ever wrought a lover’s
doom.
Forget me not!
Forget me not!
Ah!
would I could forget!
But, crying still,
“Forget me not,”
Her
image haunts me yet.
We wander’d by the river’s
brim,
The day grew dusk, the pathway
dim;
Her eyes like stars dispell’d
the gloom,
Her gleaming fingers pluck’d
the bloom.
Forget me not!
Forget me not!
Ah!
would I could forget!
But, crying still,
“Forget me not,”
Her
image haunts me yet.
The pale moon lit her paler
face,
And coldly watch’d our
last embrace,
And chill’d her tresses’
sunny hue,
And stole that flower’s
turquoise blue.
Forget me not!
Forget me not!
Ah!
would I could forget!
But, crying still,
“Forget me not,”
Her
image haunts me yet.
The fateful flower droop’d
to death,
The fair, false maid forswore
her faith;
But I obey a broken vow,
And keep those wither’d
blossoms now!
Forget me not!
Forget me not!
Ah!
would I could forget!
But, crying still,
“Forget me not,”
Her
image haunts me yet.
Sweet lips that pray’d—“Forget
me not!”
Sweet eyes that will not be
forgot!
Recall your prayer, forego
your power,
Which binds me by the fatal
flower.
Forget me not!
Forget me not!
Ah!
would I could forget!
But, crying still,
“Forget me not,”
Her
image haunts me yet.