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COME SEEK
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

COME SEEK

This is a versification of an incident related in one of the public Journals, some years since, as having occurred in one of the Otabeitan Islands, of a female Otabeitan who threatened by her friends to be wedded to one not exactly suited to her taste, sought refuge in one of the “Coral Caves of Ocean,” and was there sustained by a more favored lover. He is supposed in this effusion to be urging her to the sacrifice of her friends and home.

Come seek the ocean's depths with me,
For there are flow'rs beneath the sea,
And wandering gems of ev'ry hue,
To light thy path and meet thy view!
No clouds shall dim thy joyous sight,
They'll vanish in the robe of night,
That only draws a fitful screen,
Each ev'ning of thy life between.
I would not have thee love again,
For well I know, thou spurn'st the chain,
Yet, if the heart that's truly thine
Is worthy thee, then cherish mine!
No glare, nor worldly pomp I bring—
My only wealth this broken string;

184

Fond lyre! a mournful tale it tells,
And with my heart accordant swells!
Believe me then, my early vow
Is firm—I would not break it now;
Despised by all, yet loved by me,
There is one solace yet for thee!
And when thou dream'st of other times,
Of faults that malice pictures crimes—
Oh! then I'll whisper in thine ear,
The song I know thou lov'st to hear!
Of all, that in thy hours of youth,
Was vainly known, yet deem'd but truth;
And then I'll tell how scorn'd and cast
On life's bleak bosom—yet at last,
Tho' frowning brows where there to fright,
And scorn that falls from lips of blight,
The slave of love—impetuous will,
One bosom came to cherish still!
Then come with me, if I who blest
With home with friendship's soothing breast,
Can thus that home, that friendship fly,
With thee to mourn, with thee to die;
Sure, thou who scorn'd by every chain,
That link'd thy heart to joy or pain,
Can well forget the ties once known,
And cherish love, so much thine own!