Classic Poem

ACT II. Scene I.

The Queen's Apartment.

H OW expectation can prolong an hour,
And make it seem a day! a tedious day!
What not yet come! the wonted hour is past.
In vain I turn my eye from walk to walk,
Sophernes is not there. — Here, every morn
I watch his pensive steps along the garden,
And gaze and wish till I am lost in love!
What not yet come! But hark! methinks I hear
The sound of feet! How my heart pants and flutters!
No. 'Twas the wind that shook yon cypress boughs.
Where are my views of wealth, of power, of State?
They're blotted from my mind. I've lost ambition.
O love, thou hast me all. My dreams, my thoughts,
My every wish is center'd in Sophernes .
Hence, Shame, thou rigid tyrant of our sex,
I throw thee off — — and I'll avow my passion.
Doraspe . I can bear to think no longer.