University of Virginia Library

TO------, WITH A RING.

Yes, take the ring—love's promised ring,
By love which seemed as true requested.
Alas! I deemed not it could bring
To ruin—hopes, which on it rested.
That night—oh! never can that night
From memory's page be wiped away,
When thine eyes beamed beneath a light
Less brilliant, but less false, than they.
That night when Love lent Time his wings,
Who, all too fast, unhelped could flee,
Thou said'st the softest, sweetest things—
More soft, more sweet, when said by thee.
Why didst thou say them? wherefore wake
To joy a heart thou leav'st uncherished?
Why bid the light of Heaven to break
On hopes which else had pangless perished?
I could have borne thy cold neglect—
Nay, Lady, I have borne it long.
It needed not thou shouldst affect
A passion—but to edge the wrong,
Like those whose cruelty refined
Prompts them the tortured wretch to heal,
That, when again his limbs they bind,
More keenly he the rack may feel.
Take, take the ring—that hoop of gold—
Emblem of both our loves may be;
Like thine, 'tis hollow, heartless, cold;
Like mine, 'tis endless—and for thee!