Elegy II.
If fate will tear thee from my heart,1
Without a warning sign depart,2
For I can give no answering sign,3
Nor faulter a farewell to thine.4
If the last wafture of thy hand5
Could let my soul forth where I stand,6
If the stabb’d heart would truly bleed,7
Then kindness would be kind indeed.8
Were death to part us, I could rest9
My sinking head upon thy breast,10
And when the agony was past,11
My gaze would fade from thine at last.12
But, oh ! what other pow’r shall break13
My lips’ last hold upon thy cheek,14
Or loose my stiffen’d arms that strain15
Thy waist in grief’s convulsive pain—16
Or from my shoulder’s resting place17
Turn that pale tear-besullied face,18
Or part our trembling hands that clasp19
Their latest and long-ling’ring grasp.20
If fate will tear thee from my heart,21
Without a warning sign depart,22
For I can give no answering sign,23
Nor faulter a farewell to thine.24
Thou wast like angel here below,25
And from me, angel-like, must go,26
That, losing, I may know, not how,27
But that thou art no longer now.28
Nor let it dwell with thee—nor pine29
That thou hast no adieu of mine ;30
Ev’n from thyself thy going hide,31
Think thou art here, and I have died.32
Count me no longer to be one33
Whom earthly airs will breathe upon ;34
But keep, when thou hast ceas’d to grieve,35
The legacy of love I leave.36
Yes—so preserve my every sigh,37
Stored deeply in thy memory,38
So hold my love, since we must part,39
As if thou had’st embalm’d my heart.40
May he to whom kind Heav’n shall give41
Once more to bid thy wishes live,42
And wake that eye’s soft ray, serene,43
Be to thee—what I would have been.44
Give thou to him, with thine, the heart45
Thou takest from me, now we part ;46
Give it, and, of that heart possess’t,47
He shall be true as well as blest.48