 | The Works of Thomas Love Peacock |  |
230
AL MIO PRIMIERO AMORE
To many a shrine my steps have strayed,
Ne'er from their earliest fetters free:
And I have sighed to many a maid,
Though I have never loved but thee.
Ne'er from their earliest fetters free:
And I have sighed to many a maid,
Though I have never loved but thee.
Youth's visioned scenes, too bright to last,
Have vanished to return no more:
Yet memory loves to trace the past,
Which only memory can restore.
Have vanished to return no more:
Yet memory loves to trace the past,
Which only memory can restore.
The confidence, no heart has felt
But when with first illusions warm,
The hope, on one alone that dwelt,
The thought, that knew no second form,—
But when with first illusions warm,
The hope, on one alone that dwelt,
The thought, that knew no second form,—
All these were ours: and can it be
That their return may charm us yet?
Can aught remain to thee and me,
Beyond remembrance and regret?
That their return may charm us yet?
Can aught remain to thee and me,
Beyond remembrance and regret?
For now thy sweetest smiles appear
Like shades of joys for ever flown,
As music in an exile's ear
Recalls the strains his home has known.
Like shades of joys for ever flown,
As music in an exile's ear
Recalls the strains his home has known.
No more can bloom the faded flower:
No more the extinguished fire can burn:
Nor hope nor fancy's mightiest power
Can burst young love's sepulchral urn.
No more the extinguished fire can burn:
Nor hope nor fancy's mightiest power
Can burst young love's sepulchral urn.
| The Works of Thomas Love Peacock | |