型 Loath to leave thee. I mourn'}, For a last look I turn'd, But thy spire was scarce seen through a Tear. Though my vows I can pour To my Mary no more- I remember the hour, She rewarded those vows with a Tear By another possess❜d, May she live ever bless'd! What I once thought was mine, Ye friends of my heart, Ere from you I depart, This hope to my breast is most near :- If again we shall meet In this rural retreat, May we meet, as we part, with a Tear! When my soul wings her flight To the regions of night, And my corse shall recline on its bier, Where my ashes consume, Oh! moisten their dust with a Tear. May no marble bestow The splendour of woe, No fiction of fame Shall blazon my name; All I ask, all I wish, is a Tear. 1806. AN OCCASIONAL PROLOGUE, DELIVERED PREVIOUS TO THE PERFORMANCE OF THE WHEEL OF Since the refinement of this polish'd age In fond suspense, this crisis of their fate. Your generous plaudits are our sole reward; None to the softer sex can prove unkind: STANZAS TO A LADY, WITH THE POEMS OF CAMOENS. This votive pledge of fond esteem, Who blames it but the envious fool, In single sorrow doom'd to fade? Then read, dear girl!—with feeling read- TO M ** Oh! did those eyes, instead of fire, For thou art form'd so heavenly fair, When Nature stamp'd thy beauteous birth, She fear'd that, too divine for earth, The skies might claim thee for their own ; Therefore, to guard her dearest work, Lest angels might dispute the prize, She bade a secret lightning lurk These might the boldest sylph appal, When gleaming with meridian blaze; But who can dare thine ardent gaze? In stars adorns the vault of heaven; 1806. TO WOMAN. Woman! experience might have told me Thy firmest promises are nought; But, placed in all thy charms before me, All I forget but to adore thee. Oh, Memory! thou choicest blessing, When join'd with hope, when still possessing; This record will for ever stand 'Woman, thy vows are traced in sand.' *The last line is almost a literal translation from a Spanish proverb. TO M. S. G. When I dream that you love me, you'll surely forgive For in visions alone your affection can live- Then, Morpheus! envelop my faculties fast, Shed o'er ine your languor benign! Should the dream of to-night but resemble the last, They tell us that Slumber, the sister of Death, To Fate how I long to resign my frail breath, If this be a foretaste of Heaven! Ah! frown not, sweet lady! unbend your soft brow, If I sin in my dream, I atone for it now, Thus doomed but to gaze upon bliss. Though in visions, sweet lady, perhaps you may smile, When dreams of your presence my slumbers beguile, SONG. When I roved, a young Highlander, o'er the dark heath, To gaze on the torrent that thundered beneath, Or the mist of the tempest that gathered below;† Untutored by science, a stranger to fear, And rude as the rocks where my infancy grew, No feeling, save one, to my bosom was dear Need I say, my sweet Mary, 'twas centred in yon? Morven; a lofty mountain in Aberdeenshire: 'Gormal of snow' is an expression frequently to be found in Ossian. + This will not appear extraordinary to those who have been accustomed to the mountains; it is by no means uncommon, on attaining the top of Ben-e-vis, Ben-ybourd, &c. to perceive, between the summit and the valley, clouds pouring down rain, and occasionally accompanied by lightning; while the spectator literally looks down upon the storm, perfectly secure from its effects. |