• I've oft been told by learned friars,
    That wishing and the crime are one,
    And Heaven punishes desires
    As much as if the deed were done.

    If wishing damns us, you and I
    Are damned to all our heart's content;
    Come, then, at least we may enjoy
    Some pleasure for our punishment!

  • 'Twas a new feeling - something more
    Than we had dared to own before,
    Which then we hid not;
    We saw it in each other's eye,
    And wished, in every half-breathed sigh,
    To speak, but did not.

    She felt my lips' impassioned touch -
    'Twas the first time I dared so much,
    And yet she chid not;
    But whispered o'er my burning brow,
    'Oh, do you doubt I...

  • Believe me, if all those endearing young charms
    Which I gaze on so fondly today
    Were to change by tomorrow and fleet in my arms
    Like fairy gifts fading away,
    Thou wouldst still be adored as this moment thou art
    Let thy loveliness fade as it will
    And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart
    Would entwine itself verdantly still.

    It is...

  • At the mid hour of night, when stars are weeping, I fly
    To the lone vale we loved, when life shone warm in thine eye;
    And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the regions of air,
    To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to me there,
    And tell me our love is remember'd, even in the sky.

    Then I sing the wild song 'twas once such pleasure to hear...

  • Vé do la gloria te llama,
    Y entre el rumor de la fama
     ¡Ay! acuérdate de mí.
    Cuando más grato á tu oído
    Fuere el popular ruído,
     Aun acuérdate de mí.

    Te ceñirán otros brazos,
    Anudarás nuevos lazos,
    Y del corazón pedazos
    ...

  • Cuando estoy á par contigo
     Se renueva la creación;
    Más vivífico es el aire,
     Más hermoso alumbra el sol.
    Tu presencia es luz radiante,
     Dulce música tu voz;
    Todo es gloria, y gozo, y dicha
    ...

  • I Knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled
      Above the green elms, that a cottage was near,
    And I said, “If there ’s peace to be found in the world,
      A heart that is humble might hope for it here!”

    It was noon, and on flowers that languished around
      In silence reposed the voluptuous bee;
    Every leaf was at rest, and I heard not a sound...

  • There is not in this wide world a valley so sweet
    As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;
    O, the last ray of feeling and life must depart
    Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart!

    Yet it was not that Nature had shed o’er the scene
    Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;
    ’T was not the soft magic of streamlet or...

  • And doth not a meeting like this make amends
      For all the long years I ’ve been wand’ring away—
    To see thus around me my youth’s early friends,
      As smiling and kind as in that happy day?
    Though haply o’er some of your brows, as o’er mine,
      The snow-fall of Time may be stealing—what then?
    Like Alps in the sunset, thus lighted by wine,...

  • “a Temple to Friendship,” cried Laura, enchanted,
    “I ’ll build in this garden; the thought is divine.”
    So the temple was built, and she now only wanted
    An image of Friendship, to place on the shrine.

    So she flew to the sculptor, who sat down before her
    An image, the fairest his art could invent;
    But so cold, and so dull, that the youthful...