Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems by the late Thomas Haynes Bayly; Edited by his Widow. With A Memoir of the Author. In Two Volumes |
 | I. |
| II. |
 | Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems |  |
181
THE FORSAKEN TO HER FATHER.
I
Oh! name him not, unless it beIn terms I shall not blush to hear:
Oh! name him not, though false to me,
Forget not he was once so dear.
Oh! think of former happy days,
When none could breathe a dearer name;
And if you can no longer praise,
Be silent and forbear to blame!
II
He may be all that you have heard;If prov'd, 'twere folly to defend:
Yet pause, ere you believe one word
Breathed 'gainst the honour of a friend.
How many seem in haste to tell
What friends can never wish to know!
I answer—once I knew him well,
And then, at least, it was not so.
III
You say, when all condemn him thus,To praise him leads to disrepute:
But, had the world censured us,
Father, he would not have been mute!
He may be changed, and he may learn
To slander friends, as others do:
But if we blame him, we in turn
Have learnt that hateful lesson too!
IV
Desertion of myself, his worst,His only crime perhaps may prove!
Shall he of all men be the first
Condemned, for being false in love?
182
Its favour to the falsest heart;
Its sanction rather seems to guide
The hand again to aim the dart!
V
You hate him, father, for you knowThat he was cruel to your child.
Alas! I strove to hide my woe,
And when you look'd on me, I smil'd.
But on my faded cheek appears
An evidence of all I've felt:
I pray'd for strength, but falling tears
Betray'd my weakness as I knelt.
VI
Oh! hate him not: he must have seenSome error, that was never meant!
And love, you know, hath ever been
Prone to complain, and to resent!
Hate him not, father! nor believe
Imputed crimes, till they are proved;
And proof should rather make us grieve
For one who once was so beloved.
| Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems | |