The Works of John Hookham Frere In Verse and Prose Now First Collected with a Prefatory Memoir by his Nephews W. E. and Sir Bartle Frere |
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 | The Works of John Hookham Frere In Verse and Prose |  |
353
L.
My mind is in a strange distracted state;
Love you, I cannot!—and I cannot hate!
'Tis hard to change habitual good-will,
Hard to renounce our better thoughts for ill,—
To love without return is harder still.
But mark my resolution and protest!
Those services, for which you once profess'd
A sense of obligation due to me,
On my part were gratuitous and free;
No task had I, no duty to fulfil,
No motive, but a kind and friendly will.
Love you, I cannot!—and I cannot hate!
'Tis hard to change habitual good-will,
Hard to renounce our better thoughts for ill,—
To love without return is harder still.
But mark my resolution and protest!
Those services, for which you once profess'd
A sense of obligation due to me,
On my part were gratuitous and free;
No task had I, no duty to fulfil,
No motive, but a kind and friendly will.
Now, like a liberated bird, I fly,
That having snapt the noose, ranges on high,
Proud of his flight, and viewing in disdain
The broken fetter and the baffled swain,
And his old haunt, the lowly marshy plain!
That having snapt the noose, ranges on high,
Proud of his flight, and viewing in disdain
The broken fetter and the baffled swain,
And his old haunt, the lowly marshy plain!
For you! the secret interested end
Of him, your new pretended party friend,
Whose instigation moved you to forego
Your former friendship, time will shortly shew;
Time will unravel all the close design,
And mark his merits, as compar'd with mine.
Of him, your new pretended party friend,
Whose instigation moved you to forego
Your former friendship, time will shortly shew;
Time will unravel all the close design,
And mark his merits, as compar'd with mine.
| The Works of John Hookham Frere In Verse and Prose | |