|
The Tear
George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron
- When Friendship or Love
- Our sympathies move;
- When Truth, in a glance, should
appear,
- The lips may beguile,
- With a dimple or smile,
- But the test of affection's a
Tear:
-
- Too oft is a smile
- But the hypocrite's wile,
- To mask detestation, or fear;
- Give me the soft sigh,
- Whilst the soultelling eye
- Is dimm'd, for a time, with a
Tear:
-
- Mild Charity's glow,
- To us mortals below,
- Shows the soul from barbarity
clear;
- Compassion will melt,
- Where this virtue is felt,
- And its dew is diffused in a
Tear:
-
- The man, doom'd to sail
- With the blast of the gale,
- Through billows Atlantic to
steer,
- As he bends o'er the wave
- Which may soon be his grave,
- The green sparkles bright with a
Tear;
-
- The Soldier braves death
- For a fanciful wreath
- In Glory's romantic career;
- But he raises the foe
- When in battle laid low,
- And bathes every wound with a
Tear.
-
- If, with high-bounding
pride,
- He return to his bride!
- Renouncing the gore-crimson'd
spear;
- All his toils are repaid
- When, embracing the maid,
- From her eyelid he kisses the
Tear.
-
- Sweet scene of my youth!
- Seat of Friendship and
Truth,
- Where Love chas'd each
fast-fleeting year
- Loth to leave thee, I
mourn'd,
- For a last look I turn'd,
- But thy spire was scarce seen
through a Tear:
-
- Though my vows I can pour,
- To my Mary no more,
- My Mary, to Love once so dear,
- In the shade of her bow'r,
- I remember the hour,
- She rewarded those vows with a
Tear.
-
- By another possest,
- May she live ever blest!
- Her name still my heart must
revere:
- With a sigh I resign,
- What I once thought was
mine,
- And forgive her deceit with a
Tear.
-
- Ye friends of my heart,
- Ere from you I depart,
- This hope to my breast is most
near:
- If again we shall meet,
- In this rural retreat,
- May we meet, as we part, with a
Tear.
-
- When my soul wings her
flight
- To the regions of night,
- And my corse shall recline on
its bier;
- As ye pass by the tomb,
- Where my ashes consume,
- Oh! moisten their dust with a
Tear.
|