University of Virginia Library


189

II. REMEMBER THEE?

And dost thou doubt that I remember thee,
Because no word of thee adorn'd my letter?
Oh, God! by my dark fate which is to be,
And by the sorrows my strong soul that fetter—
My innate gloom of spirit—I do swear
To my rack'd heart, an oath religious there,
That my mad soul unto thy memory sighs,
As the lost traveller to the only star
That lit his path, now dying in the clouds:
O, mournful is the gloom my sky that shrouds,
And my calm hopes betost in tempest are;
Yet 'mid my sadness thoughts of thee remain;
And the deep light of thy unfellow'd eyes
Hath graven fiery records on my brain!