The Venetian bracelet the lost Pleiad, a history of the lyre, and other poems. By L. E. L. [i.e. Landon] |
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SONG.
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 | The Venetian bracelet |  |
284
SONG.
[I pray thee let me weep to-night]
I pray thee let me weep to-night,
'Tis rarely I am weeping;
My tears are buried in my heart,
Like cave-lock'd fountains sleeping.
'Tis rarely I am weeping;
My tears are buried in my heart,
Like cave-lock'd fountains sleeping.
But oh, to-night, those words of thine
Have brought the past before me;
And shadows of long-vanish'd years
Are passing sadly o'er me.
Have brought the past before me;
And shadows of long-vanish'd years
Are passing sadly o'er me.
285
The friends I loved in early youth,
The faithless and forgetting,
Whom, though they were not worth my love,
I cannot help regretting;—
The faithless and forgetting,
Whom, though they were not worth my love,
I cannot help regretting;—
My feelings, once the kind the warm,
But now the hard, the frozen;
The errors I've too long pursued,
The path I should have chosen;—
But now the hard, the frozen;
The errors I've too long pursued,
The path I should have chosen;—
The hopes that are like failing lights
Around my pathway dying;
The consciousness none others rise,
Their vacant place supplying;—
Around my pathway dying;
The consciousness none others rise,
Their vacant place supplying;—
286
The knowledge by experience taught,
The useless, the repelling;
For what avails to know how false
Is all the charmer's telling?
The useless, the repelling;
For what avails to know how false
Is all the charmer's telling?
I would give worlds, could I believe
One half that is profess'd me;
Affection! could I think it Thee,
When Flattery has caress'd me?
One half that is profess'd me;
Affection! could I think it Thee,
When Flattery has caress'd me?
I cannot bear to think of this,—
Oh, leave me to my weeping;
A few tears for that grave my heart,
Where hope in death is sleeping.
Oh, leave me to my weeping;
A few tears for that grave my heart,
Where hope in death is sleeping.
| The Venetian bracelet | |