6. I know not if I could have borne To see thy beauties fade; The night that follow'd such a morn Thy day without a cloud hath past, As stars that shoot along the sky Shine brightest as they fall from high. 7. As once I wept, if I could weep, To gaze-how fondly! on thy face, To fold thee in a faint embrace, Uphold thy drooping head; And show that love, however vain, Nor thou nor I can feel again. 8. Yet how much less it were to gain, Though thou hast left me free, The loveliest things that still remain, Than thus remember thee! The all of thine that cannot die Through dark and dread Eternity And more thy buried love endears XVII. STANZAS. 1. If sometimes in the haunts of men, Thine image from my breast may fade, The lonely hour presents again, The semblance of thy gentle shade: And now that sad and silent hour Thus much of thee can still restore, And sorrow unobserv'd may pour The plaint she dare not speak before. 2. Oh, pardon that in crowds awhile, I waste one thought I owe to thee, And, self-condemned, appear to smile, Unfaithful to thy Memory! Nor deem that memory less dear, That then I seem not to repine, I would not fools should overhear One sigh that should be wholly thine. 3. If not the Goblet pass unquaff'd, The cup must hold a deadlier draught From all her troubled visions free, I'd dash to earth the sweetest bowl That drown'd a single thought of thee. 4. For wert thou vanish'd from my mind, And who would then remain behind 'Tis meet that I remember still. 5. For well I know, that such had been And, Oh! I feel in that was given, Thou wert too like a dream of Heaven, For earthly Love to merit thee. March 14th, 1812. |