Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Harp of Renfrewshire

259
XCVIII.
LINES
WRITTEN ON PARTING FROM SOME FRIENDS.
As one who leaves some blessed isle,
Where youth's unclouded hours were past ;
Wliere all around him wore a smile,
Too bright, too rainbow-like, to last ;
Where beauty haunted every bower,
And fragrance breathed from every flower,
And heaven shed a softer hue
On aU that slept beneath its blue ; —
Roams through each well-known sunny glade,
And visits every leafy shade.
And sighs o'er every floweret's bell
That fancy hallows with a speU ;
And strives to bid adieu, in vain,
To all he ne'er may see again !
And, like a phantom, wanders still
Tlu-ough every vale, o'er every hill,
In every grove, by every stream,
Each blent with childhood's golden dream ;—
Long lingering, with a fond distress,
To weep above their loveliness.
And sighing, as remembrance brings
The thousand thoughts upon its wings,
That over all have sweetly thrown
A milder magic of their own : —
While oft a tear (and O, in heaven,
That murmuring tear shall be foi'given !)