Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A SONG by MATTHEW PRIOR

First Line: IN VAIN YOU TELL YOUR PARTING LOVER
Last Line: OF SLIGHTED VOWS, AND COLD DISDAIN.
Subject(s): BACCHUS; DRINKS & DRINKING; MYTHOLOGY - CLASSICAL; SINGING & SINGERS; SOUL; VENUS (GODDESS); WINE;
IN vain you tell your parting lover,
You wish fair winds may waft him over.
Alas! what winds can happy prove,
That bear me far from what I love!
Alas! what dangers on the main
Can equal those that I sustain,
From slighted vows, and cold disdain!
Be gentle, and in pity choose
To wish the wildest tempests loose:
That, thrown again upon the coast,
Where first my shipwrecked heart was lost,
I may once more repeat my pain;
Once more in dying notes complain
Of slighted vows, and cold disdain.



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