Estranged.
O, to be near to you!—Oh, to be dear to you!—
To feel in my heart, that your heart is my own.
All days have been dreary—my soul is aweary,
And still, must I walk in this dark way alone?
O, fond was my dreaming, when hope’s star was beaming,
When fancy’s bright web like a mantle of gold,
Lay over life’s losses—its trials and crosses,
And hid them, in splendors, of fold upon fold.
I thought then to follow (Oh, heartless and hollow!)
Where Fashion’s throng led, and to kneel where it knelt—
Thought Love’s nectared chalice was found in a palace—
In princely halls only, true happiness dwelt.
But Fashion’s vile brew, is of wormwood and rue—
It prays where the virtues are trampled and dead—
The bane we thought gladness, has led to this madness;
Dissipation came in, and the Peace-angel fled.
No wandering emotion e’er sullied devotion,
But anger’s hot lava my reason o’erran;
In the coolness of pride, (that love’s fervor belied)
The sorrows and pangs of estrangement began.
Be rashness forgiven, bring back to us heaven—
Our Eden-like home, with its love-lighted skies;
Tho’ parted forever, affection dies never—
’Tis knit into life with indissoluble ties.
The rills that have mingled, can never be singled—
They’ll flow on as one in their course to the sea;
By love, early plighted, our souls were united,
And ever—forever united must be.
Entwining each thought—with tenderness fraught—
Is loving, enduring remembrance of thee,
And, deep in your heart, in its holiest part,
I know there’s a hidden affection for me.
Shall life be all nighted—Love’s flame ne’er be lighted,
While I—by its altar with ashes o’er strewn—
Must ever remember thro’ constant December,
The balmy bright days and the roses of June?
O, desert, Sahara!—Oh, waters of Marah!
I tread the hot sands—press the fount with my lips—
In sorrow, go roaming, thro’ the shadowy gloaming
That falls, o’er a life, with love’s sun in eclipse.