4. On many a lone and lovely night Shone sweetly on thy pensive eye: When sailing o'er the Ægean wave, "Now Thyrza gazes on that moonAlas, it gleam'd upon her grave! 5. When stretch'd on fever's sleepless bed, And sickness shrunk my throbbing veins, ""Tis comfort still," I faintly said, "That Thyrza cannot know my pains: Like freedom to the time-worn slave, A boon 'tis idle then to give; Relenting nature vainly gave My life, when Thyrza ceas'd to live. 6. My Thyrza's pledge in better days, The heart that gave itself with thee 7. Thou bitter pledge! thou mournful token! To that which cannot quit the dead? WHEN Time, or soon or late, shall bring The dreamless sleep that lulls the dead, Oblivion! may thy languid wing Wave gently o'er my dying bed! 2. No band of friends or heirs be there, To weep, or wish, the coming blow: No maiden, with dishevell'd hair, To feel, or feign, decorous woe. 3. But silent let me sink to Earth, Yet Love, if Love in such an hour Could nobly check its useless sighs, Might then exert its latest power In her who lives and him who dies. 5. "Twere sweet, my Psyche! to the last Thy features still serene to see: Forgetful of its struggles past, E'en Pain itself should smile on thee. 6. But vain the wish-for Beauty still Will shrink, as shrinks the ebbing breath: And woman's tears, produc'd at will, Deceive in life, unman in death. 7. Then lonely be my latest hour, Without regret, without a groan! For thousands Death hath ceas'd to lower, And pain been transient or unknown. 8. "Ay, but to die, and go," alas! Where all have gone, and all must go! To be the nothing that I was Ere born to life and living woe! |