Robert Burns

* * *

FAREWELL, thou stream that winding flows
  Around Eliza’s dwelling!
O Mem’ry! spare the cruel throes
  Within my bosom swelling:
Condemn’d to drag a hopeless chain,
  And yet in secret languish,
To feel a fire in ev’ry vein,
  Nor dare disclose my anguish.

Love’s veriest wretch, unseen, unknown,
  I fain my griefs would cover:
The bursting sigh, th’ unweeting groan,
  Betray the hapless lover.
I know thou doom’st me to despair,
  Nor wilt nor canst relieve me;
But oh, Eliza, hear one prayer,-
  For pity’s sake forgive me!

The music of thy voice I heard,
  Nor wist while it enslav’d me;
I saw thine eyes, yet nothing fear’d,
  Till fears no more had sav’d me:
Th’ unwary sailor thus aghast,
  The wheeling torrent viewing,
‘Mid circling horrors sinks at last
  In overwhelming ruin.