 | Areytos or songs and ballads of the South |  |
15
EYES, EYES, YE HAVE LED ME TO RUIN!
I.
Eyes, eyes, ye have led me to ruin,Yet still ye are lovely, and still I adore!
Lips, lips, ye have been my undoing,
Yet still would I feed on your sweet evermore:
Ye are fatal to fame, and I give up ambition,
Content but to breathe in the balm ye impart—
To sigh away life in a dreamy condition,
Forgetting the soul in the calls of the heart!
II.
Eyes, eyes, ye behold without feeling,The ruin ye make, and the ills ye have done!
Lips, lips, in the smile o'er ye stealing,
I see but the sense of the triumph ye've won:
No tender emotion subdues the expression,
Which vanity wears o'er a conquest complete;
No tear, starting forth at the mournful confession,
Consoles the poor victim that sighs at your feet!
III.
Why, why, so cruelly sinning'Gainst all that is lovely in beauty and youth?
Eyes, why so beautiful—lips, why so winning,
If still so denying to passion and truth?
Know'st thou not, proud one, that proud gifts in woman,
Are precious alone while they kindle with heart?
And the moment that beauty forgets to be human,
All the beautiful gifts of the woman depart?
| Areytos or songs and ballads of the South | |