Volume Ii Part 83 (1/2)

The turtle on yon withered bough, That lately mourned her murdered mate, Has found another comrade now-- Such changes all await!

Again her drooping plume is drest, Again she's willing to be blest And takes her lover to her nest.

If nature has decreed it so With all above, and all below, Let us like them forget our woe, And not be killed with sorrow.

If I should quit your arms to-night And chance to die before 'twas light, I would advise you--and you might-- Love again to-morrow.

Philip Freneau [1752-1832]

THE TEST

I held her hand, the pledge of bliss, Her hand that trembled and withdrew; She bent her head before my kiss...

My heart was sure that hers was true.

Now I have told her I must part, She shakes my hand, she bids adieu, Nor shuns the kiss. Alas, my heart!

Hers never was the heart for you.

Walter Savage Landor [1775-1864]

”THE FAULT IS NOT MINE”

The fault is not mine if I love you too much, I loved you too little too long, Such ever your graces, your tenderness such, And the music the heart gave the tongue.

A time is now coming when Love must be gone, Though he never abandoned me yet.

Acknowledge our friends.h.i.+p, our pa.s.sion disown, Our follies (ah can you?) forget.

Walter Savage Lander [1775-1864]

THE SNAKE

My love and I, the other day, Within a myrtle arbor lay, When near us, from a rosy bed, A little Snake put forth its head.

”See,” said the maid, with laughing eyes-- ”Yonder the fatal emblem lies!

Who could expect such hidden harm Beneath the rose's velvet charm?”

Never did moral thought occur In more unlucky hour than this; For oh! I just was leading her To talk of love and think of bliss.

I rose to kill the snake, but she In pity prayed it might not be.

”No,” said the girl--and many a spark Flashed from her eyelid as she said it-- ”Under the rose, or in the dark, One might, perhaps, have cause to dread it; But when its wicked eyes appear, And when we know for what they wink so, One must be very simple, dear, To let it sting one--don't you think so?”

Thomas Moore [1779-1852]

”WHEN I LOVED YOU”