Louisa Stuart Costello

Medjnoon in His Solitude

My ev'ry thought and wish was thine;
   Alas! thou know'st too well—
The ties that bind thy soul and mine,
  How lasting need I tell.

Oh! I have lov'd thee tenderly—
   Too dearly love thee still!
I feel that thought can never die—
   That wish no time can kill.

The life that spreads before me now
    Is one vast wilderness;
No fairy vales the scene can show
    That smile to cheer and bless.

All dreary spreads the frowning waste—
    A desert, gloomy, bare;
The rugged path, when found at last,
    Leads on but to despair!

No streams, that cool the parching breeze,
   Spring in that desert rude;
Save those the fainting Arab sees,
   That glitter to delude.

Or if some smiling view display'd
    Would tempt my hope again,
I know 'tis but an empty shade,
    And sigh to feel it vain!