Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Farewell

Farewell! companion of my solitude!
Light of my loneliness, my heart's desire;
Spirit, that wander'd o'er the soft harp's strings,
Farewell! awhile I wake me from thy dream;
Fondly farewell, adored one! to thee.——
Rose of my soul! beside the social hearth
Was thy first springing up; thy ev'ry shoot
Was brighten'd in the smile of those most dear:
Affection was thy sunlight and thy dew.
And when thy bloom was lonely, when no more
The eyes I lov'd watch'd o'er thy growth, thou wert
The blest memorial of those far away—
Thy blossoms breath'd of happiness and home.

What joy to think, perchance some future day,
Those looks would dwell on thee again, and greet
The buds expanding, and thy new sprung leaves!
Thou, Poetry, in absence wert a chain,
Binding our hearts together: where so well
As in thy numbers, could I pour my soul,
In soothing tenderness? 'twas bliss, to make
Thought visible to those of whom I thought.
Now that enchantment over, thy slight bark
Adventures in a wide and perilous sea;
Dark are the waves around thy fragile skiff;
Unskilful is the hand which pilots thee;
And few have ever reach'd thy destin'd shore.
I part from thee, as I should part from one
Whom I may wish, not hope, to see again.
Fondly, and fearfully, farewell to thee,
Sweet sojourner, so long my bosom guest!
Perhaps a long, perhaps a last farewell!