1.
You say you love, and yet your eye
No symptom of that love conveys,
You say you love, yet know not why,
Your cheek no sign of love
betrays.
2.
Ah! did that breast with ardour glow,
With me alone it joy could know,
Or feel with me the listless woe,
Which racks my heart when
far from thee.
3.
Whene’er we meet my blushes rise,
And mantle through my purpled
cheek,
But yet no blush to mine replies,
Nor e’en your eyes your
love bespeak.
4.
Your voice alone declares your flame,
And though so sweet it breathes my name,
Our passions still are not the same;
Alas! you cannot love like
me.
5.
For e’en your lip seems steep’d
in snow,
And though so oft it meets
my kiss,
It burns with no responsive glow,
Nor melts like mine in dewy
bliss.
6.
Ah! what are words to love like mine,
Though uttered by a voice like thine,
I still in murmurs must repine,
And think that love can ne’er
be true,
7.
Which meets me with no joyous sign,
Without a sigh which bids
adieu;
How different is my love from thine,
How keen my grief when leaving
you.
8.
Your image fills my anxious breast,
Till day declines adown the West,
And when at night, I sink to rest,
In dreams your
fancied form I view.
9.
’Tis then your breast, no longer
cold,
With equal ardour seems to
burn,
While close your arms around me fold,
Your lips my kiss with warmth
return.
10.
Ah! would these joyous moments last;
Vain HOPE! the gay delusion’s past,
That voice
no, ’tis
but the blast,
Which echoes through the neighbouring
grove.
11.
But when awake, your lips I seek,
And clasp enraptur’d
all your charms,
So chill’s the pressure of your
cheek,
I fold a statue in my arms.
12.
If thus, when to my heart embrac’d,
No pleasure in your eyes is trac’d,
You may be prudent, fair, and chaste,
But ah! my girl, you do
not love.
[Footnote 1: These lines, which
appear in the Quarto, were never republished.]
