"One struggle more and I am free." BYRON LEAVE me, oh! leave me! -- unto all below Thy presence binds me with too deep a spell; Thou makest those mortal regions, whence I go, Too mighty in their loveliness -- farewell, That I may part in peace! Leave me! -- thy footstep with its lightest sound, The very shadow of thy waving hair, Wakes in my soul a feeling too profound, Too strong for aught that loves and dies, to bear -- Oh! bid the conflict cease! I hear thy whisper -- and the warm tears gush Into mine eyes, the quick pulse thrills my heart; Thou biddest the peace, the reverential hush, The still submission, from my thoughts depart; Dear one! this must not be. The past looks on me from thy mournful eye, The beauty of our free and vernal days, Our communings with sea, and hill, and sky -- Oh! take that bright world from my spirit's gaze. Thou art all earth to me! Shut out the sunshine from my dying room, The jasmine's breath, the murmur of the bee; Let not the joy of bird-notes pierce the gloom! They speak of love, of summer, and of thee, Too much -- and death is here! Doth our own spring make happy music now, From the old beech-roots flashing into day? Are the pure lilies imaged in its flow? Alas! vain thoughts! that fondly thus can stray From the dread hour so near! If I could but draw courage from the light Of thy clear eye, that ever shone to bliss! -- Not now! 'twill not be now! -- my aching sight Drinks from that fount a flood of tenderness, Bearing all strength away! Leave me! -- thou comest between my heart and Heaven; I would be still, in voiceless prayer to die! Why must our souls thus love, and then be riven! Return! thy parting wakes mine agony! Oh, yet awhile delay! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE VIRGINIANS OF THE VALLEY by FRANCIS ORRERY TICKNOR AN EPITAPH UPON THE DEATH OF HIS AUNT, ELIZABETH SKRYMSHER by RICHARD BARNFIELD NOTWITHSTANDING by JAMES BUCKHAM TO A LADY, ON BEING ASKED MY REASON FOR QUITTING ENGLAND by GEORGE GORDON BYRON HUMMING-BIRD by HILDA CONKLING TALE: 4. PROCRASTINATION by GEORGE CRABBE THE BLACK RIDERS: 10 by STEPHEN CRANE A SONG OF ARLA, DURING HER ENTHUSIASM by ANNE BATTEN CRISTALL |