Classic Poem

I.

Tell me, heart, O tell me where
All my loves and hopes are flown?
Ah! to weep and sigh alone
Withers all that 's fresh and fair.

Hours of tenderest pleasure, where,
Where have fled your golden dreams?
Sorrow now in life's warm streams
Mingles cold and wintry care.

Youth, — how proud and light it springs,
Shouting, " Welcome, flowery May!
See, the turtle sleeks his wings,
Roses bloom, and fountains play;
Earth is full of joyous things! " —
Ah! but soon they fade away.

II.

I DIE , my love, my treasure!
My heart, my soul, I die.
O, turn that gentle eye!
My ebbing life shall fly
Back, in one tide of pleasure.
O fairest, sweetest, dearest! —
O, soft as any dream,
When by the meadow stream
Thy loved one's lute thou hearest!
I ask one gift, deny not, —
Those eyes of living light,
O, let them glad my sight!
Look hither, love, and fly not.
My heart, my heart is beating, —
O, hear its fond entreating!
O, turn those eyes in kindness, —
What if the look be blindness!
My prayer, my prayer, deny not.