FRAGMENT XXXVIII.
THE OATH.
To him who will best understand it.
I
By the first sigh that o'er thy lip did hover,
And sweetly breath'd a secret sweeter still;
By thy reproachful glance, thou mock reprover!
The speechless transport, and the vaunted thrill:
II
By thy assumed despair and fancied sorrow,
The sudden languor, and the transient glow;
By all those wiles thou know'st from love to borrow,
The timid doubt, the counterfeited woe:
III
By the soft murmurs of thy flatt'ring tongue,
By all thy looks have told, or smiles exprest,
By all thou'st sworn, or wrote, or said, or sung,
By all the arts thou aimest at my breast:
IV
By the feign'd tear of love (delusive trembler!)
Thou know'st to conjure to thy dang'rous eye,
And by that dang'rous eye, thou arch dissembler,
I still am free, and Love and thee defy!
V
For not a faultless form or perfect face,
Or studied arts, can win a soul like mine;
It must be more than mere external grace,
It must be more than ever can be thine.
VI
Why (though thy tender vow exalt another)
May not my rapt imagination rove
Beyond the solemn softness of a brother,
And live in fancy on thy looks of love?
VII
Ah! surely of celestial growth the flowers
That bloom'd so brightly o'er our early scene;
For tho' that sunny scene was dash'd with showers,
How glorious was each glitt'ring space between!
VIII
Young Innocence, array'd in guiltless blushes,
Would then preside o'er each delightful prank;
Wild Laughter wreath her mimic crown of rushes,
And pluck her jewels from the lilied bank.
IX
Now sterner cares impel of big ambition,
The glare of beauty, and the din of praise;
And nature quite disown'd, that playful vision
Is but the vision of departed days.
X
Mid the mad waves of life's inconstant ocean
My solitary skiff shall vent'rous steer,
And mem'ry, smiling at the dread commotion,
Paint on each cloud affection's harbour near.
XI
Thy gilded bark o'er the glad billows bounding,
Ætesian gales shall smoothly bear along,
And sighing crowds its charming freight surrounding,
Salute thy splendid progress with a song.
XII
While thou dost to the choral flatt'ry listen,
More gently soothed by melancholy bliss,
Perchance thy meek averted eye may glisten
O'er some neglected strain—sincere as this.
