| |
| THOU ling’ring star, with less’ning ray, | |
| That lov’st to greet the early morn, | |
| Again thou usher’st in the day | |
| My Mary from my soul was torn. | |
| O Mary! dear departed shade! | 5 |
| Where is thy place of blissful rest? | |
| See’st thou thy lover lowly laid? | |
| Hear’st thou the groans that rend his breast? | |
| |
| That sacred hour can I forget, | |
| Can I forget the hallow’d grove, | 10 |
| Where, by the winding Ayr, we met, | |
| To live one day of parting love! | |
| Eternity can not efface | |
| Those records dear of transports past, | |
| Thy image at our last embrace, | 15 |
| Ah! little thought we ’twas our last! | |
| |
| Ayr, gurgling, kiss’d his pebbled shore, | |
| O’erhung with wild-woods, thickening green; | |
| The fragrant birch and hawthorn hoar, | |
| ’Twin’d amorous round the raptur’d scene: | 20 |
| The flowers sprang wanton to be prest, | |
| The birds sang love on every spray; | |
| Till too, too soon, the glowing west, | |
| Proclaim’d the speed of wingèd day. | |
| |
| Still o’er these scenes my mem’ry wakes, | 25 |
| And fondly broods the miser-care; | |
| Time but th’ impression stronger makes, | |
| As streams their channels deeper wear, | |
| My Mary! dear departed shade! | |
| Where is thy place of blissful rest? | 30 |
| See’st thou thy lover lowly laid? | |
| Hear’st thou the groans that rend his breast? | |
| |
