| |
| FARE 1 thee well, inconstant lover! | |
| If thy fickle flame was love;— | |
| Though our transient joys are over, | |
| I can ne’er inconstant prove. | |
| |
| Man may boast a deathless passion, | 5 |
| Swear his love shall ne’er decline; | |
| Yet, unfix’d as changing fashion, | |
| Woman’s fate may change like mine! | |
| |
| Once I thought I might believe thee; | |
| Might on Byron’s oath rely; | 10 |
| But my arms do scarce receive thee | |
| Ere thy oaths, unheeded, die. | |
| |
| From paternal arms you took me, | |
| Stole me from a mother’s care; | |
| Then in wantonness forsook me | 15 |
| For a less admiring fair. | |
| |
| Prayers and tears were unavailing, | |
| Nought thy purpose could beguile; | |
| Not a wife, her woes bewailing, | |
| Nor a lovely infant’s smile. | 20 |
| |
| Heaven had form’d thee for unkindness, | |
| Steel’d thy soul to all that ’s mild; | |
| Dimm’d thy moral sight with blindness, | |
| Left thee Nature’s wayward child. | |
| |
| Stay! I must not—cannot chide thee; | 25 |
| What thou hast not, who can blame? | |
| Virtue is what heaven denied thee, | |
| And the world has done the same. | |
| |
| Think not I can e’er forget thee; | |
| No, thy griefs will all be mine; | 30 |
| I shall weep when foes beset thee, | |
| Smile when fortune’s sun shall shine. | |
| |
| Must I—can I—shall a mother | |
| Hate the father of her child? | |
| Gracious Heaven! my anguish smother,— | 35 |
| At that name, my infant smiled! | |
| |
| Smiled to think she had a father | |
| To protect her growing years;— | |
| Unsuspecting orphan, rather | |
| Drown thine eye in floods of tears! | 40 |
| |
| Father, now, sweet babe, thou hast not; | |
| All his care you must forego; | |
| Other woes thy peace may blast not, | |
| Yet thou hast this keenest wo! | |
| |
| Orphan babe! my care shall ever | 45 |
| Guard thee from the ills of life; | |
| Death alone hath power to sever | |
| Byron’s babe and constant wife! | |
