The cruel fair, for whom I
burn,
May one day to these shades
return,
And smiling with superior
grace,
Her lover seek around this
place,
And when instead of me she
finds
Some crumbling dust toss’d
by the winds,
She may feel pity in her breast,
And, sighing, wish me happy
rest,
Drying her eyes with her soft
veil,
Such tears must sure with
Heaven prevail.
Well I remember how the flowers
Descended from these boughs
in showers,
Encircled in the fragrant
cloud
She set, nor midst such glory
proud.
These blossoms to her lap
repair,
These fall upon her flowing
hair,
(Like pearls enchased in gold
they seem,)
These on the ground, these
on the stream;
In giddy rounds these dancing
say,
Here Love and Laura only sway.
In rapturous wonder oft I
said,
Sure she in Paradise was made,
Thence sprang that bright
angelic state,
Those looks, those words,
that heavenly gait,
That beauteous smile, that
voice divine,
Those graces that around her
shine:
Transported I beheld the fair,
And sighing cried, How came
I here?
In heaven, amongst th’
immortal blest,
Here let me fix and ever rest.
MOLESWORTH.
Ye waters clear
and fresh, to whose blight wave
She all her beauties gave,—
Sole of her sex in my impassion’d
mind!
Thou sacred branch so graced,
(With sighs e’en now
retraced!)
On whose smooth shaft her
heavenly form reclined!
Herbage and flowers that bent
the robe beneath,
Whose graceful folds compress’d
Her pure angelic breast!
Ye airs serene, that breathe
Where Love first taught me
in her eyes his lore!
Yet once more all attest,
The last sad plaintive lay
my woe-worn heart may pour!
If so I must my destiny fulfil,
And Love to close these weeping
eyes be doom’d
By Heaven’s mysterious
will,
Oh! grant that in this loved
retreat, entomb’d,
My poor remains may lie,
And my freed soul regain its
native sky!
Less rude shall Death appear,
If yet a hope so dear
Smooth the dread passage to
eternity!
No shade so calm—serene,
My weary spirit finds on earth
below;
No grave so still—so
green,
In which my o’ertoil’d
frame may rest from mortal woe!
Yet one day, haply, she—so
heavenly fair!
So kind in cruelty!—
With careless steps may to
these haunts repair,
And where her beaming eye
Met mine in days so blest,
A wistful glance may yet unconscious
rest,
And seeking me around,
May mark among the stones
a lowly mound,
That speaks of pity to the
shuddering sense!
Then may she breathe a sigh,
Of power to win me mercy from
above!
Doing Heaven violence,
All-beautiful in tears of
late relenting love!