In unavailing streams my tears are shed;
Sad Laura's bliss is with Lorenzo fled.
For thee, false youth, was every joy resign'd,
Young health, sweet peace, and innocence of mind;
Are these the constant vows thy tongue profest,
When first thy arms my yielding beauties prest?
Thus did thy kiss dispel my empty fears,
Or winning voice delight my raptur'd ears;
Thus swore thy lips, by ocean, earth, and sky;
By hell's dread powers, and heaven's all-piercing eye?
Yawns not the grave for thee? Why sleeps the storm
To blast thy limbs, and rend thy perjur'd form?
Unmov'd, O faithless, canst thou hear my pain,
Like the proud rocks which brave th' unwearied main?
Sooner the ship-wreck'd pilot shall appease
With sighs the howling winds, with tears the seas,
Than Laura's prayers thy heart unfeeling move,
O lost to fame, to honour, and to love.
Nurst in dark caverns on some mountain wild
To cruel manhood grew the daring child,
No female breast supplied thy infant food,
But tygers growling o'er their savage brood.
Curs'd be that fatal hour thy charms were seen,
While yet this mind was guiltless, and serene.
With thee, false man, I urg'd my hasty flight,
And dar'd the horrors of tempestuous night,
Nor fear'd with thee through plains unknown to rove,
Deaf to the dictates of paternal love.
In vain for me a parent's tears were shed,
And to the grave descends his hoary head.