Volume 3 — POEMS OF THE SEPARATION

"Alas! they had been friends in youth; But whispering tongues can poison truth: And Constancy lives in realms above; And Life is thorny; and youth is vain: And to be wroth with one we love, Doth work like madness in the brain; But never either found another To free the hollow heart from paining— They stood aloof, the scars remaining, Like cliffs which had been rent asunder; A dreary sea now flows between, But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder, Shall wholly do away, I ween, The marks of that which once hath been."

Fare thee well! and if for ever, Still for ever, fare thee well: Even though unforgiving, never 'Gainst thee shall my heart rebel. Would that breast were bared before thee[ri] Where thy head so oft hath lain, While that placid sleep came o'er thee[rj] Which thou ne'er canst know again: Would that breast, by thee glanced over, Every inmost thought could show! Then thou would'st at last discover 'Twas not well to spurn it so. Though the world for this commend thee—[433] Though it smile upon the blow, Even its praises must offend thee, Founded on another's woe: Though my many faults defaced me, Could no other arm be found, Than the one which once embraced me, To inflict a cureless wound? Yet, oh yet, thyself deceive not— Love may sink by slow decay, But by sudden wrench, believe not Hearts can thus be torn away: Still thine own its life retaineth— Still must mine, though bleeding, beat;[rk] And the undying thought which paineth[rl] Is—that we no more may meet. These are words of deeper sorrow[rm] Than the wail above the dead; Both shall live—but every morrow[rn] Wake us from a widowed bed. And when thou would'st solace gather— When our child's first accents flow— Wilt thou teach her to say "Father!" Though his care she must forego? When her little hands shall press thee— When her lip to thine is pressed— Think of him whose prayer shall bless thee— Think of him thy love had blessed! Should her lineaments resemble Those thou never more may'st see, Then thy heart will softly tremble[ro] With a pulse yet true to me. All my faults perchance thou knowest— All my madness—none can know;[rp] All my hopes—where'er thou goest— Wither—yet with thee they go. Every feeling hath been shaken; Pride—which not a world could bow—[rq] Bows to thee—by thee forsaken,[rr] Even my soul forsakes me now. But 'tis done—all words are idle— Words from me are vainer still;[rs] But the thoughts we cannot bridle Force their way without the will. Fare thee well! thus disunited—[rt] Torn from every nearer tie— Seared in heart—and lone—and blighted— More than this I scarce can die.

"Honest—honest Iago! If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee."

Born in the garret, in the kitchen bred, Promoted thence to deck her mistress' head;[rv] Next—for some gracious service unexpressed, And from its wages only to be guessed— Raised from the toilet to the table,—where Her wondering betters wait behind her chair. With eye unmoved, and forehead unabashed, She dines from off the plate she lately washed. Quick with the tale, and ready with the lie, The genial confidante, and general spy— 10 Who could, ye gods! her next employment guess— An only infant's earliest governess![rw] She taught the child to read, and taught so well, That she herself, by teaching, learned to spell. An adept next in penmanship she grows, As many a nameless slander deftly shows: What she had made the pupil of her art, None know—but that high Soul secured the heart,[rx] And panted for the truth it could not hear, With longing breast and undeluded ear. 20 Foiled was perversion by that youthful mind,[ry] Which Flattery fooled not, Baseness could not blind, Deceit infect not, near Contagion soil, Indulgence weaken, nor Example spoil,[rz] Nor mastered Science tempt her to look down On humbler talents with a pitying frown, Nor Genius swell, nor Beauty render vain, Nor Envy ruffle to retaliate pain,[sa] Nor Fortune change, Pride raise, nor Passion bow, Nor Virtue teach austerity—till now. 30 Serenely purest of her sex that live,[sb] But wanting one sweet weakness—to forgive; Too shocked at faults her soul can never know, She deems that all could be like her below: Foe to all vice, yet hardly Virtue's friend, For Virtue pardons those she would amend. But to the theme, now laid aside too long, The baleful burthen of this honest song,[sc] Though all her former functions are no more, She rules the circle which she served before. 40 If mothers—none know why—before her quake; If daughters dread her for the mothers' sake; If early habits—those false links, which bind At times the loftiest to the meanest mind—[sd] Have given her power too deeply to instil The angry essence of her deadly will;[se] If like a snake she steal within your walls, Till the black slime betray her as she crawls; If like a viper to the heart she wind, And leave the venom there she did not find; 50 What marvel that this hag of hatred works[sf] Eternal evil latent as she lurks, To make a Pandemonium where she dwells, And reign the Hecate of domestic hells? Skilled by a touch to deepen Scandal's tints With all the kind mendacity of hints, While mingling truth with falsehood—sneers with smiles— A thread of candour with a web of wiles;[sg] A plain blunt show of briefly-spoken seeming, To hide her bloodless heart's soul-hardened scheming; 60 A lip of lies; a face formed to conceal, And, without feeling, mock at all who feel: With a vile mask the Gorgon would disown,— A cheek of parchment, and an eye of stone.[sh] Mark, how the channels of her yellow blood Ooze to her skin, and stagnate there to mud, Cased like the centipede in saffron mail, Or darker greenness of the scorpion's scale—[si] (For drawn from reptiles only may we trace Congenial colours in that soul or face)— 70 Look on her features! and behold her mind[sj] As in a mirror of itself defined: Look on the picture! deem it not o'ercharged— There is no trait which might not be enlarged: Yet true to "Nature's journeymen,"[435] who made This monster when their mistress left off trade— This female dog-star of her little sky, Where all beneath her influence droop or die.[sk] Oh! wretch without a tear—without a thought, Save joy above the ruin thou hast wrought— 80 The time shall come, nor long remote, when thou Shalt feel far more than thou inflictest now; Feel for thy vile self-loving self in vain, And turn thee howling in unpitied pain. May the strong curse of crushed affections light[436] Back on thy bosom with reflected blight! And make thee in thy leprosy of mind As loathsome to thyself as to mankind! Till all thy self-thoughts curdle into hate, Black—as thy will or others would create: 90 Till thy hard heart be calcined into dust, And thy soul welter in its hideous crust. Oh, may thy grave be sleepless as the bed, The widowed couch of fire, that thou hast spread! Then, when thou fain wouldst weary Heaven with prayer, Look on thine earthly victims—and despair! Down to the dust!—and, as thou rott'st away, Even worms shall perish on thy poisonous clay.[sl] But for the love I bore, and still must bear, To her thy malice from all ties would tear— 100 Thy name—thy human name—to every eye The climax of all scorn should hang on high, Exalted o'er thy less abhorred compeers— And festering[437] in the infamy of years.[sm]

When all around grew drear and dark,[sn] And reason half withheld her ray— And Hope but shed a dying spark Which more misled my lonely way; In that deep midnight of the mind, And that internal strife of heart, When dreading to be deemed too kind, The weak despair—the cold depart; When Fortune changed—and Love fled far,[so] And Hatred's shafts flew thick and fast, Thou wert the solitary star[sp] Which rose and set not to the last.[sq] Oh! blest be thine unbroken light! That watched me as a Seraph's eye, And stood between me and the night, For ever shining sweetly nigh. And when the cloud upon us came,[sr] Which strove to blacken o'er thy ray—[ss] Then purer spread its gentle flame,[st] And dashed the darkness all away. Still may thy Spirit dwell on mine,[su] And teach it what to brave or brook— There's more in one soft word of thine Than in the world's defied rebuke. Thou stood'st, as stands a lovely tree,[sv] That still unbroke, though gently bent, Still waves with fond fidelity Its boughs above a monument. The winds might rend—the skies might pour, But there thou wert—and still wouldst be Devoted in the stormiest hour To shed thy weeping leaves o'er me. But thou and thine shall know no blight, Whatever fate on me may fall; For Heaven in sunshine will requite The kind—and thee the most of all. Then let the ties of baffled love Be broken—thine will never break; Thy heart can feel—but will not move; Thy soul, though soft, will never shake. And these, when all was lost beside, Were found and still are fixed in thee:— And bearing still a breast so tried, Earth is no desert—ev'n to me.