I HAD a heart that doted once in Passion's boundless pain, And though the tyrant I abjured, I could not break his chain; But now that Fancy's fire is quenched, and ne'er can burn anew, I've bid to Love, for all my life, adieu! adieu! adieu! I've known, if ever mortal knew, the spells of Beauty's thrall, And if my song has told them not, my soul has felt them all; But Passion robs my peace no more, and Beauty's witching sway Is now to me a star that's fall'n -- a dream that's passed away. Hail! welcome tide of life, when no tumultuous billows roll; How wondrous to myself appears this halcyon calm of soul! The wearied bird blown o'er the deep would sooner quit its shore, Than I would cross the gulf again that time has brought me o'er. Why say they angels feel the flame? -- Oh, spirits of the skies! Can love like ours, that dotes on dust, in heavenly bosoms rise? -- Ah no! the hearts that best have felt its power, the best can tell, That peace on earth itself begins, when Love has bid farewell. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ARCHITECT (2) by KAREN SWENSON ULYSSES AND THE SIREN by SAMUEL DANIEL SONNET TO MRS. REYNOLD'S CAT by JOHN KEATS THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 27. HEART'S COMPASS by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI LITTLE JESUS by FRANCIS THOMPSON A WESTERN WASTE by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE LORD ROBERTS by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB |