Louisa Stuart Costello: Verses about Time

The transient time, for ever past,

How shall I dare review!—

The fatal day we parted last,

And wept out last adieu!

Alas! that day has swell'd to years—

That sorrow to a sea of tears!


I would the mournful thoughts would fly,

Regretted, loved in vain,

Among the dreams of memory

That never come again!—

Would their remembrance might decay,

Swept like the autumn leaves away!

If we should ever meet again

When many tedious years are past;

When time shall have unbound the chain,

And this sad heart is free at last;—

Then shall we meet and look unmov'd,

As though we ne'er had met—had lov'd!

And I shall mark without a tear

How cold and calm thy alter'd brow;

I shall forget thou once wert dear,

Rememb'ring but thy broken vow!

Rememb'ring that in trusting youth

I lov'd thee with the purest truth;

That now the fleeting dream is o'er,

And thou canst raise the spell no more!