"Go!" said the angry, weeping maid, "The charm is broken! -- once betray'd, Oh! never can my heart rely On word or look, on oath or sigh. Take back the gifts, so sweetly given, With promised faith and vows to heaven; That little ring which, night and morn, With wedded truth my hand hath worn; That seal, which oft in moments blest, Thou hast upon my lip impress'd, And sworn its dewy spring should be A fountain seal'd for only thee! "Take, take them back, the gift and vow, All sullied, lost, and hateful now!" I took the ring -- the seal I took, While oh! her every tear and look Were such as angels look and shed, When man is by the world misled! Gently I whisper'd, "Fanny, dear! Not half thy lover's gifts are here: Say, where are all the seals he gave To every ringlet's jetty wave, And where is every one he printed Upon that lip, so ruby-tinted, Seals, of the purest gem of bliss, Oh! richer, softer, far than this! "And then the ring -- my love! recall How many rings, delicious all, His arms around that neck hath twisted. Twining warmer far than this did! Where are they all, so sweet, so many? Oh! dearest, give back all, if any!" While thus I murmur'd, trembling too Lest all the nymph had vow'd was true I saw a smile relenting rise 'Mid the moist azure of her eyes, Like daylight o'er a sea of blue, While yet the air is dim with dew. She let her cheek repose on mine, She let my arms around her twine -- Oh! who can tell the bliss one feels In thus exchanging rings and seals! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SHILOH; A REQUIEM by HERMAN MELVILLE SEA-SONG by WILLIAM DRUMMOND BAKER FOR THE QUEEN MOTHER by JOHN BETJEMAN LIFE'S CURTAIN by EMMA MAGIN BISSELL A MORNING WALK by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN OBSERVATIONS IN THE ART OF ENGLISH POESY: 24. ELEGIAC VERSE: THE SEVENTH EPIGRAM by THOMAS CAMPION |