PLEDGE of departed bliss, Once gentlest, holiest token! Art thou more faithful than thy mistress is, That ever I must wear thee, And on my besom bear thee, Although the bond that knit her soul with mine is broken? Why shouldest thou prove stronger? Short are the days of love, and wouldst thou make them longer? Lili! in vain I shun thee! Thy spell is still upon me. In vain I wander through the distant forests strange, In vain I roam at will By foreign glade and hill, For, ah! where'er I range, Beside my heart, the heart of Lili nestles still! Like a bird that breaks its twine, Is this poor heart of mine: It fain into the summer bowers would fly, And yet it cannot be Again so wholly free; For always it must bear The token which is there, To mark it as a thrall of past captivity. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE GOLDEN CORPSE by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET IN EQUAL SACRIFICE by ROBERT FROST FATHER LAND AND MOTHER TONGUE by SAMUEL LOVER THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER: OCTOBER by EDMUND SPENSER LITTLE JOHN AND THE RED FRIAR; A LAY OF SHERWOOD by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN THE WIFE'S TREASURE by SABINE BARING-GOULD SWORD AND BUCKLER; OR, SERVING-MAN'S DEFENCE: INTRODUCTION by WILLIAM BASSE |