I will not ease my tortured heart, Each thought presumptuous I resign. Yes! yield those lips, for which I'd brave Yes! yield that breast, to seek despair, At least from guilt shalt thou be free, TO CAROLINE. THINK'ST thou I saw thy beauteous eyes, Though keen the grief tny tears exprest, When love and hope lay both o'erthrown; Yet still, my girl, this bleeding breast Throbb'd with deep sorrow as thine own. But when our cheeks with anguish glow'd, When thy sweet lips were join'd to mine, The tears that from my eyelids flow'd Were lost in those which fell from thine. Thou couldst not feel my burning cheek, Thy gushing tears had quench'd its flame, And as thy tongue essay'd to speak, In signs alone it breath'd my name. And yet, my girl, we weep in vain, But that will make us weep the more. Again, thou best beloved, adieu ! Ah! if thou canst, o'ercome regret, TO CAROLINE. WHEN I hear you express an affection so warm, Yet, still, this fond bosom regrets, while adoring, That the time must arrive, when, no longer retaining 'Tis this, my beloved, which spreads gloom o'er my features, Mistake not, sweet sceptic, the cause of emotion, But as death, my beloved, soon or late shall o'ertake us, Oh then let us drain, while we may, draughts of pleasure, 1805. TO CAROLINE. OH! when shall the grave hide for ever my sorrow? But brings, with new torture, the curse of to-day. From my eye flows no tear, from my lips flow no curses, Its querulous grief, when in anguish like this. Was my eye, 'stead of tears, with red fury flakes bright'ning, Would my lips breathe a flame which no stream could assuage, On our foes should my glance launch in vengeance its lightning, With transport my tongue give a loose to its rage. But now tears and curses, alike unavailing, Would add to the souls of our tyrants delight; Could they view us our sad separation bewailing, Their merciless heart would rejoice at the sight. Yet still, though we bend with a feign'd resignation, Oh! when, my adored, in the tomb will they place me, If again in the mansion of death I embrace thee, 1805. STANZAS TO A LADY, WITH THE POEMS OF 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, He was in sooth a genuine bard THE FIRST KISS OF LOVE. 'Α Βαρβιτος δε χορδαῖς Ερωτα μουνον ἠχεῖ.—ANACREON. AWAY with your fictions of flimsy romance; Those tissues of falsehood which folly has wove! Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance, Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love. Ye rhymers, whose bosoms with phantasy glow, Whose pastoral passions are made for the grove; From what blest inspiration your sonnets would flow, Could you ever have tasted the first kiss of love. If Apollo should e'er his assistance refuse, Or the Nine be disposed from your service to rove, Invoke them no more, bid adieu to the muse, And try the effect of the first kiss of love. I hate you, ye cold compositions of art: Though prudes may condemn me, and bigots reprove, I court the effusions that spring from the heart, Which throbs with delight to the first kiss of love. Your shepherds, your flocks, those fantastical themes, What are visions like these to the first kiss of love? Oh! cease to affirm that man, since his birth, From Adam till now, has with wretchedness strove, Some portion of paradise still is on earth, And Eden revives in the first kiss of love. When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past- ON A CHANGE OF MASTERS AT A GREAT PUBLIC WHERE are those honours, Ida! once your own, |