He smiling took her wary hand,
And said “No longer here I stand.
My charger shakes his flowing mane
And calls me with impatient neigh
Adieu then till we meet again,
Sweet love I must no longer stay.”

      2
“You must not go so soon,” she said
“I will not say fare well,
The sun has not dispelled the shade
    In yonder dewey dell;
Dark shadows of gigantic length,
    Are sleeping on the lawn;
And scarcely have the birds begun,
    To hail the summer morn;
Then stay with me a little while.”
She said with soft and sunny smile.

      3
He smiled again, and did not speak,
But lightly kissed her rosey cheek,
And fondly clasped her in his arms,
Then vaulted on his steed.

And down the park’s smooth winding road,
He urged its flying speed,
Still by the door the his lady stood,
And watched his rapid flight,
Until he came to a distant wood,
That hid him from her sight,
But ere he vanished from her view,
He waved to her a last adieu,
Then onward hastily he steered,
And in the forest disappeared.

      4
His The lady smiled a pensive smile,
    And heaved a gentle sigh,
But her cheek was all unblanched the while,
And tearless was her eye,
“A thousand lovely flowers,” she said
Are smiling on the plain,
And ere one half of them are dead,
My lord will come again,
The leaves are waving fresh and green,

On every stat[e]ly tree,
And long before they die away,
He will return to me!” —
Alas! Fair Lady say not so,
Thou canst not tell the weight of wo,
That lies in store for thee.

      5
Those flowers will fade, those leaves will fall,
Winter will darken yonder hall,
Sweet Spring will smile o’er hill and plain,
And trees and flowers will bloom again,
And years will still keep rolling on,
But thy beloved lord is gone.
His absence thou shalt deeply mourn,
And never smile on his return.

63 lines –––––––– July 9 1838