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I saw, from yonder silent cave ,
Two Fountains running, side by side,

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The one was Mem'ry's limpid wave,
The other cold Oblivion's tide.
“Oh Love!” said I, in thoughtless mood,
As deep I drank of Lethe's stream,
“Be all my sorrows in this flood
“Forgotten like a vanish'd dream!”
But who could bear that gloomy blank,
Where joy was lost as well as pain?
Quickly of Mem'ry's fount I drank,
And brought the past all back again;
And said, “Oh Love! whate'er my lot,
“Still let this soul to thee be true—
“Rather than have one bliss forgot,
“Be all my pains remember'd too!”
 

“This morning we paid our visit to the Cave of Trophonius, and the Fountains of Memory and Oblivion, just upon the water of Hercyna, which flows through stupendous rocks.” —Williams's Travels in Greece.