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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ODES TO NEA: 3 by THOMAS MOORE

First Line: WELL -- PEACE TO THY HEART, THOUGH ANOTHER'S BE
Last Line: AND A BLESSING FOR ME TO THAT ALLEY OF LIMES!

WELL -- peace to thy heart, though another's it be,
And health to thy cheek, though it bloom not for me!
To-morrow, I sail for those cinnamon groves
Where nightly the ghost of the Carribee roves,
And, far from thine eye, oh! perhaps, I may yet
Its seduction forgive and its splendour forget!
Farewell to Bermuda, and long may the bloom
Of the lemon and myrtle its valleys perfume;
May spring to eternity hallow the shade,
Where Ariel has warbled and Waller has stray'd!
And thou -- when, at dawn, thou shalt happen to roam
Through the lime-cover'd alley that leads to thy home
Where oft, when the dance and the revel were done,
And the stars were beginning to fade in the sun,
I have led thee along, and have told by the way
What my heart all the night had been burning to say --
Oh! think of the past -- give a sigh to those times,
And a blessing for me to that alley of limes!



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