No More Learning

POEMS OF THE SEPARATION



FARE THEE WELL. [432]

"Alas! they had been friends in youth;
But whispering tongues can poison truth:
And Constancy lives in realms above;
And Life is thorny; and youth is vain:
And to be wroth with one we love,
Doth work like madness in the brain;

* * * * *

But never either found another
To free the hollow heart from paining--
They stood aloof, the scars remaining,
Like cliffs which had been rent asunder;
A dreary sea now flows between,
But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder,
Shall wholly do away, I ween,
The marks of that which once hath been. "
Coleridge's Christabel. [rh]

Fare thee well! and if for ever,
Still for ever, fare _thee well:_
Even though unforgiving, never
'Gainst thee shall my heart rebel.
Would that breast were bared before thee[ri]
Where thy head so oft hath lain,
While that placid sleep came o'er thee[rj]
Which thou ne'er canst know again:
Would that breast, by thee glanced over,
Every inmost thought could show!
Then thou would'st at last discover
'Twas not well to spurn it so.
Though the world for this commend thee--[433]
Though it smile upon the blow,
Even its praises must offend thee,
Founded on another's woe:
Though my many faults defaced me,
Could no other arm be found,
Than the one which once embraced me,
To inflict a cureless wound?
Yet, oh yet, thyself deceive not--
Love may sink by slow decay,
But by sudden wrench, believe not
Hearts can thus be torn away:
Still thine own its life retaineth--
Still must mine, though bleeding, beat;[rk]
And the undying thought which paineth[rl]
Is--that we no more may meet.
These are words of deeper sorrow[rm]
Than the wail above the dead;
Both shall live--but every morrow[rn]
Wake us from a widowed bed.
And when thou would'st solace gather--
When our child's first accents flow--
Wilt thou teach her to say "Father! "
Though his care she must forego?
When her little hands shall press thee--
When her lip to thine is pressed--
Think of him whose prayer shall bless thee--
Think of him thy love _had_ blessed!
Should her lineaments resemble
Those thou never more may'st see,
Then thy heart will softly tremble[ro]
With a pulse yet true to me.
All my faults perchance thou knowest--
All my madness--none can know;[rp]
All my hopes--where'er thou goest--
Wither--yet with _thee_ they go.
Every feeling hath been shaken;
Pride--which not a world could bow--[rq]
Bows to thee--by thee forsaken,[rr]
Even my soul forsakes me now.
But 'tis done--all words are idle--
Words from me are vainer still;[rs]
But the thoughts we cannot bridle
Force their way without the will.
Fare thee well! thus disunited--[rt]
Torn from every nearer tie--
Seared in heart--and lone--and blighted--
More than this I scarce can die.

[First draft, _March_ 18, 1816.
First printed as published, April 4, 1816. ]



A SKETCH. [ru][434]

"Honest--honest Iago!
If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee. "
Shakespeare.

Born in the garret, in the kitchen bred,
Promoted thence to deck her mistress' head;[rv]
Next--for some gracious service unexpressed,
And from its wages only to be guessed--
Raised from the toilet to the table,--where
Her wondering betters wait behind her chair.
With eye unmoved, and forehead unabashed,
She dines from off the plate she lately washed.
Quick with the tale, and ready with the lie,
The genial confidante, and general spy-- 10
Who could, ye gods! her next employment guess--
An only infant's earliest governess! [rw]
She taught the child to read, and taught so well,
That she herself, by teaching, learned to spell.