The poetical writings of Elizabeth Oakes Smith :: :: University of Virginia Library

With thee no more, oh Fancy, can I stray,
My dreamy eye through thee all things beholding,
No more with loitering feet, and hands enfolding,
I seek the bower where flickering sun-beams play.
Farewell, oh changeful spirit, we must part,
Thou hast no portion in a weary heart.

Farewell, the dew within the blossom's cup,
An angel's face no more to me revealing—
Glad voices now no more around me stealing,
Fanned by thy wing may lift my spirits up;
My world is all too drear for thee, sweet sprite,
And I will bid thee, one long, last good night.

Yet linger thou, oh! when the stars are out,
Let thoughts of thee, the weak, lone heart beguiling,
Steal gently in, and lure the lip to smiling;

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Though darkness and distress may be about,
The waving of thy robe I fain would see,
Though thou art lost, for ever lost to me.

I know that thou art deemed a lesser sprite,
Thy rainbow wing unfit for lofty soaring;
Yet not the less for thee was my adoring,
I, who have shrank in terror from a flight
That leaving lowlier things, too oft hath left
The aching heart of all its love bereft.

Thou wilt not bide, thy shadowy form each day
More faint and faintly on my vision gleaming,
May not the real screen, with thy sweet seeming;
And yet thou canst not turn thy face away—
Though form be lost, thy saddened eyes remain,
Fond, gentle eyes, that lure me from my pain.

Farewell, in all the ministry of life—
Though visions fade, and such as once were keeping
Bright vigils round, vigils that knew no sleeping,
May leave their place for others armed for strife,
Yet blessed ones, 'tis sweet to think that ye,
And such as ye, have watched our destiny.