Poem by 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.

1. The Flowery Banks of Cree
2. The Day Returns
3. As Down the Burn They Took Their Way
4. Theniel Menzies’ Bonnie Mary
5. The Cooper O’ Cuddle

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