WHEN first I met thee, warm and young, There shone such truth about thee, And on thy lip such promise hung, I did not dare to doubt thee. I saw thee change, yet still relied, Still clung with hope the fonder, And thought, though false to all beside, From me thou couldst not wander. But go, deceiver! go, -- The heart, whose hopes could make it Trust one so false, so low, Deserves that thou shouldst break it. When every tongue thy follies named, I fled the unwelcome story; Or found, in even the faults they blamed, Some gleams of future glory. I still was true, when nearer friends Conspired to wrong, to slight thee; The heart, that now thy falsehood rends, Would then have bled to right thee. But go, deceiver! go. -- Some day, perhaps, thou'lt waken From pleasure's dream, to know The grief of hearts forsaken. Even now, though youth its bloom has shed, No lights of age adorn thee: The few, who loved thee once have fled, And they who flatter scorn thee. Thy midnight cup is pledged to slaves, No genial ties enwreathe it; The smiling there, like light on graves, Has rank cold hearts beneath it. Go -- go -- though worlds were thine, I would not now surrender One taintless tear of mine For all thy guilty splendour! And days may come, thou false one! yet, When even those ties shall sever; When thou wilt call, with vain regret, On her thou 'st lost for ever; On her who, in thy fortune's fall, With smiles had still received thee, And gladly died to prove thee all Her fancy first believed thee. Go -- go -- 'tis vain to curse, 'Tis weakness to upbraid thee; Hate cannot wish thee worse Than guilt and shame have made thee. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GOING AND STAYING by THOMAS HARDY CLANCY OF THE MOUNTED POLICE by ROBERT WILLIAM SERVICE SONNET: 33 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE SAD MOTHER by KATHARINE TYNAN OF MAIDENS' PRAISE: AN INVOCATION by SAINT ALDHELM THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH: BOOK 2. RUSTIC INTERIOR by JOHN ARMSTRONG ROMANCE OF DUNOIS by HORTENSE DE BEAUHARNAIS |