 | Miscellany Poems |  |
The Parting Lover.
I
Beneath a Mournfull Yew, more than half-Dead,The Melancholy Damon sate;
With Moving Accents sighing out his Fate,
The Object of his Passion fled:
Cælia, the Glory of the Plains,
Cælia, the Flame of all the Youthfull Swains;—
With pale dead Eyes he saw her Flight,
His Eyes Just closing in Eternal Night.
His loaden bosom thus his Sorrow spoke,
His Words and Heart thus at one instant broke.
II
“So by Design or Chance, some Lonely Wretch,“Left on a distant, Northern, Land
“With Swelling Eyes beholds the barren Strand,
“Th' uncomfortable, naked, Beach;
“Where grizely Famine leads the way,
“Fruitfull in nothing, but in Beasts of Prey.
“Monsters behind his back do roar,
“The Sea Destruction doth present before.
“And if to Heaven he looks with weeping Eyes,
“He sees that setting Sun, that ne're will rise.
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III
“What shall He do, lost Wretch! Where shall He go?“His Sighs the Fatal Winds increase;
“And flouds of Tears do swell the Mounting Seas:
“All things conspire unto his Woe.
“The ragged Rocks no comfort give,
“The barren Sands on them forbid to Live.
“With sooty Wings sad Night draws on,
“A Night, that ne're will see a Rising Sun:
“Till griping Famine him doth eat away,
“Or He to hungry Jaws becomes a Prey.
IV
“And to increase his Woe, far off at Sea“The Ship, in which his Hope's confin'd,
“Opens Her Bosom to the Prosperous Wind,
“Regardless of his Misery.
“Loudly He doth of Fate complain,
“Loudly laments his Wretched State in vain.
“The Noisy Billows cannot hear;
“Relentless Rocks are deaf unto his Prayer.
“The floating Ships before the Winds do play:
“The Winds bear them, his Hopes, and fruitless Prayers away.
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