Portland Gazette, And Maine Advertiser

Poetry.

From the Analectic Magazine.

TO A BEAUTIFUL QUAKER.

By Lord Byron

SWEET girl! though only once we met,
That meeting I shall ne'er forget;
And though we ne'er may meet again,
Remembrance will thy form retain:
I would not say "I love," but still
My senses struggle with my will;
In vain to drive thee from my breast,
My thoughts are more and more repress'd;
In vain I check the rising sighs,
Another to the last replies;
Perhaps this is not love, but yet
Our meeting I can ne'er forget.

What though we never silence broke,
Our eyes in sweeter language spoke;
The tongue in flattering phrases deals,
And tells a tale it never feels:
Deceit the guilty lips apart,
And hush the mandates of the heart;
But soul's interpreters, the eyes,
Spurn such restraint, and scorn disguise.
As thus our glances oft conversed,
And all our bosoms felt rehearsed,
No spirit from within reproved us,
Say rather, 'twas the spirit moved us.
Though what they uttered I repress,
Yet I conceive thou't partly guess;
For as on thee my memory ponders,
Perchance to me thine also wanders:
Thus for myself at least I say,
Thy form appears through night, through day;
Awake, with it my fancy teems,
In sleep, it smiles in fleeting dreams;
The vision charms the hours away,
And bids me curse Aurora's ray,
For breaking slumbers of delight,
Which makes me wish for endless night.

Since, oh! whate'er my future fate,
Shall joy or woe my steps await,
Tempted by love, by storms beset,
Thine image I can ne'er forget.
Alas, again no more we meet,
No more our former looks repeat;
Then let me breathe this parting prayer,
It is dictated by my bosom's care.
"May Heaven so guard my lovely Quaker,
That anguish may ne'er overtake her,
But blessed be he! aye her heart's partaker."

Oh, may the happy mortal fated
To be by dearest ties related,
For he each hour new joys discover,
And taste the husband in the lover;
May that fair bosom never know,
What 'tis to feel the restless woe,
Which stings the soul with vain regret,
Of him who never can forget.