O THOU pale orb that silent shines
While care-untroubled mortals sleep!
Thou seest a wretch who inly pines.
And wanders here to wail and weep!
With woe I nightly vigils keep,
Beneath thy wan, unwarming beam;
And mourn, in lamentation deep,
How life and love are all a dream!
I joyless view thy rays adorn
The faintly-marked, distant hill;
I joyless view thy trembling horn,
Reflected in the gurgling rill:
My fondly-fluttering heart, be still!
Thou busy powr, remembrance, cease!
Ah! must the agonizing thrill
For ever bar returning peace!
No idly-feignd, poetic pains,
My sad, love-lorn lamentings claim:
No shepherds pipeArcadian strains;
No fabled tortures, quaint and tame.
The plighted faith, the mutual flame,
The oft-attested powrs above,
The promisd fathers tender name;
These were the pledges of my love!
Encircled in her clasping arms,
How have the rapturd moments flown!
How have I wishd for fortunes charms,
For her dear sake, and hers alone!
And, must I think it! is she gone,
My secret hearts exulting boast?
And does she heedless hear my groan?
And is she ever, ever lost?
Oh! can she bear so base a heart,
So lost to honour, lost to truth,
As from the fondest lover part,
The plighted husband of her youth?
Alas! lifes path may be unsmooth!
Her way may lie thro rough distress!
Then, who her pangs and pains will soothe
Her sorrows share, and make them less?
Ye wingèd hours that oer us passd,
Enrapturd more, the more enjoyd,
Your dear remembrance in my breast
My fondly-treasurd thoughts employd:
That breast, how dreary now, and void,
For her too scanty once of room!
Evn evry ray of hope destroyd,
And not a wish to gild the gloom!
The morn, that warns th approaching day,
Awakes me up to toil and woe;
I see the hours in long array,
That I must suffer, lingering, slow:
Full many a pang, and many a throe,
Keen recollections direful train,
Must wring my soul, were Phoebus, low,
Shall kiss the distant western main.
And when my nightly couch I try,
Sore harassd out with care and grief,
My toil-beat nerves, and tear-worn eye,
Keep watchings with the nightly thief:
Or if I slumber, fancy, chief,
Reigns, haggard-wild, in sore affright:
Evn day, all-bitter, brings relief
From such a horror-breathing night.
O thou bright queen, who oer th expanse
Now highest reignst, with boundless sway
Oft has thy silent-marking glance
Observd us, fondly-wandring, stray!
The time, unheeded, sped away,
While loves luxurious pulse beat high,
Beneath thy silver-gleaming ray,
To mark the mutual-kindling eye.
Oh! scenes in strong remembrance set!
Scenes, never, never to return!
Scenes, if in stupor I forget,
Again I feel, again I burn!
From evry joy and pleasure torn,
Lifes weary vale Ill wander thro;
And hopeless, comfortless, Ill mourn
A faithless womans broken vow!