THE SEQUEL TO MY LOVE SONG

Years lapsed cruel fate did us sever,

This cold world of bliss was no bower

I'd no Eve no Eden and never

Ate love apple not a crab sour.

Too soon by compulsion thou weddest

Like Lucy in Scott's Lammermoor,

The tears without stint which thou sheddest,

Proved thee trapped like a bird in a lure.

In the distance I heart-broken follow,

Face averted, unknowing, unknow"n,

Heard fatal words in accents hollow,

That reft thee from me — left alone.

Take back thy worthless gifts, fortune,

Come too late for me to enjoy,

I'd change wealth and state which importune

For a moment's love void of alloy.

La Belle Nam

Peinture yrandcur naturelle appartenant à Sir Tollemache Sinelair Par Tintoretto (Le Tintoret)

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Had he loved thee, thou'dst heard of me never,

Nor thy grace nor thy goodness could win

From all joy he did thee dissever,

For ray darling he cares not a pin*

Ah! thou'rt grieved, thy homes a cage gilded,

Though of iron thou feel'st are the bars,

Love's cottage thy fancy once builded,

Repulsive reality mars.

Married love seldom lasts or is real,

Grows tepid, then frozen and sere,

The material destroys the ideal,

Constraint loathed makes ft^eedom more dear.

When the heart from the hand is quite severed,

Should the form and the shadow remain ?

Ties last which to break we endeavoured

As no meaning they now retain.

None loved me, I've lost sire and mother,

And sister and brother and friend.

None knew of the grief I did smother.

And I longed drear existence to end.

Why stay, said I, here in sad exile?

No sympathy I can here find,

The breeze sweeps the leaves from trees flexile,

Waft me far with them, tempest most kind.

Again then thy presence, like lightning,

Threw gleams o'er the darkness around,

Like the drowning nan's rope when it's tightening.

My life seemed to thine to be bound.

To others love is but a pastime.

To me it's my sorrow's sole cure.

My heart for thee yearns, for this last time.

Be my own while my life shall endure.

Thy letters, oft kissed, lie before me.

Endearing and blotted with tears.

Feels thy heart still the love it once bore me,

Or is my doom worse than my fears ?

In my dreams I oft think I behold thee,

Thy head nestled on my fond breast,

If ne'er in my arms I'll enfold thee,

I'll dream on or eternally rest.

Oh ! could I a moment enfold thee.

And give thee one passionate kiss.

Naught on earth from me could then withhold thee,

I'd swim in an ocean of bliss.

Give me back, if love's last word is spoken,

My heart whole and free as before.

For then my hope's dream was unbroken,

Now my soul pines with grief evermore.

Nay 'tis useless — affections, once shattered,

Sink at once like a wreck near the shore,

And from day dreams when once they are scattered,

I'll awake to no happiness more.

Do not think for a moment when starting,

My heart from thine image could stray.

Ah ! remember my tears at our parting,

When my life's blood seemed ebbing away.

If I thought that another caressed thee,

4!0 LARMES BT SÛfRlRES

My seared heart would burst with a cry,

And thou'dst wish that my love could have blessed thee.

When I drink Lethe's waters and die.

Without thee there could be no heaven,

Nor with thee can scarce be a hell,

For the joy of the first would want leaven.

And hell's torments thy love would dispel.

Ah! when my last moment o'ertakes me,

My soul will ascend to the sky.

And if then thine image forsakes me.

Thy name's stamped on my heart ; wilt thou sigh ?

When thy soul quits the trammels which bound thee,

My heart will remain at thy side.

Angels' wings will be folded around thee.

Whom I sing when on earth with such pride.

Should from Eden the Seraph exclude me,

Thy name would my talisman be,

And he would relent as he viewed me,

When he knew that I sought only thee I