OF THE DESERTED MAIDEN TO HER LOVER .
Go! go! thou hast forgotten all
Thine early vows, so false, so vain!
Thy faithless love I’d not recall,
Could one word make thee mine again!
I lov’d thee with the fondest zeal
That ever warm’d a youthful heart;
And still my prayer is for thy weal,
Although so chang’d, so cold thou art.
While in the gilded halls of wealth
‘Twas mine to move, thou lov’dst me well —
Or seem’d to love — but, ah! the breath
Of sorrow hath dissolv’d the spell.
Thou told’st me that my cheek was fair,
And praised my tresses’ auburn hue;
But ’twas the gems that glitter’d there
Alone had magic for thy view.
And now the eye that always burn’d
So warmly when it glanc’d on me,
At my approach away is turn’d —
I would not thus have treated thee!
Go! go! thou hast forgotten all
Thine early vows, so false, so vain!
Thy faithless love I’d not recall,
Could one word make thee mine again!
I lov’d with such devotedness
That I had been as fondly thine
Through shame, and sorrow, and distress,
As thou, while fortune smil’d, seem’d mine.
I would have been the perfumed air
That breathes upon the rose’s bed,
And still will fondly linger there
When bloom and beauty — all are fled.
I would have been the ivy wreath
That twines around some rifted tree;
And, like the ivy, even in death
Have clung to thee, to only thee.
But thou hast rudely bid depart
The form that knelt before thy shrine;
Thy hand hath torn away the heart
Whose every nerve was knit with thine.
Go! go! thou hast forgotten all
Thine early vows, so false, so vain!
Thy faithless love I’d not recall,
Could one word make thee mine again!
