Classic Poem

We parted at the midnight hour,
We parted then as lovers part,
The stars which pierced that trellis'd bower,
They saw me press her to my heart;
I left her with no fear, — no doubt!
I left her with my hopes — my all —
I left her then! O God! — without
A dream of what would soon befall.

I went to toil — far from her sight,
Far from her blessed voice away —
But still she haunted me by night,
Still murmur'd in my ears by day.
The hours flew by in dreams of her,
Those hours which claim'd far other care,
I wasted them — fond worshipper —
In dreams, whose waking was despair!

A month — no, not a month — by Heaven!
Had fled since she was pledged to me —
Since I love's parting kiss had given
To seal her vows of constancy!
The very moon was not yet old,
Whose crescent beam our loves had lighted —
Yet ere those few short weeks were told,
She had forgot the faith she plighted!

I heard her lips that faith forswear —
And, while those lips revealed the tale,
My very soul it blush'd that e'er
It could have loved a thing so frail!
Yet scorn — it was not scorn that stung —
'Twas pity — horror — grief, that moved me —
I felt the wrong — the shameless wrong,
But spared the heart that once had loved me!

Yes, faithless, false, as now I found it,
That heart had beat against my own,
And I — I could not bear to wound it,
When all its shielding worth was flown.
What though I could believe no more
In such as her own lips reveal'd her!
Yet still when all Love's faith was o'er,
Love's tenderness remained to shield her.

And when the moment came to break
The subtle chain around me cast,
Like me she seem'd in soul to ache
At riving of its links at last.
Could they betray my mind once more,
Those pleading looks? yes! even then,
So sweet the guise of truth they wore,
I wish'd to be deceived again.

Ay! strangely as at first we met —
There did, by Heaven! around her hover
Such light of warmth and truth, that yet
I, at the last, was still her lover!
And when I saw her brow o'ercast —
Saw tears from those soft eyelids melt,
I reck'd not, cared not for the past,
But there, adoring, could have knelt!

That moment to her lip and eye
There came that calm and loveless air,
Like Beauty, when her triumph's nigh,
Will toward its easy victim wear.
No test — no time — no fate had wrought
O'er soul like mine so strong a spell,
As in that moment chill'd to naught
Love that did seem unquenchable!

We parted — not as lovers part —
No kind farewell — no fond regret
Was utter'd then from either heart —
We parted only to forget;
We parted, not as lovers part,
As lovers we can meet no more.
Let Time decide in either heart
Which most such parting shall deplore.