To Emma

1.

Since now the hour is come at last,
⁠When you must quit your anxious lover;
Since now, our dream of bliss is past,
⁠One pang, my girl, and all is over.

2.

Alas! that pang will be severe,
⁠Which bids us part to meet no more
Which tears me far from one so dear,
⁠Departing for a distant shore.

3.

Well! we have pass'd some happy hours,
⁠And joy will mingle with our tears;
When thinking on these ancient towers,
⁠The shelter of our infant years;

4.

Where from this Gothic casement's height,
⁠We view'd the lake, the park, the dell,
And still, though tears obstruct our sight,
⁠We lingering look a last farewell,

5.

O'er fields through which we us'd to run,
⁠And spend the hours in childish play;
O'er shades where, when our race was done,
⁠Reposing on my breast you lay;

6.

Whilst I, admiring, too remiss,
⁠Forgot to scare the hovering flies,
Yet envied every fly the kiss,
⁠It dar'd to give your slumbering eyes:

7.

See still the little painted bark,
⁠In which I row'd you o'er the lake;
See there, high waving o'er the park,
⁠The elm I clamber'd for your sake.

8.

These times are past, our joys are gone,
⁠You leave me, leave this happy vale;
These scenes, I must retrace alone;
⁠Without thee, what will they avail?

9.

Who can conceive, who has not prov'd,
⁠The anguish of a last embrace?
When, torn from all you fondly lov'd,
⁠You bid a long adieu to peace.

10.

This is the deepest of our woes,
⁠For this these tears our cheeks bedew;
This is of love the final close,
⁠Oh, God! the fondest, last adieu!