Landon in The New Monthly 1836/Song 1
9
The New Monthly Magazine, Volume 47, Pages 29 to 30
SONGS BY L. E. L.
I.
I loved her! and her azure eyes
Haunted me from sweet sunrise
To the dewy evening's close,
Dyeing rosier the rose.
Yet I said, 'tis best to be
Free—and I again was free.
But I changed—and auburn hair
Seem'd to float upon the air;
Till I thought the orange-flower
Breathed of nothing but her bower.
Yet I said, 'tis best to be
Free—and I again was free.
Next I loved a Moorish maid,
And her cheek of moonlit shade;
Pale and languid, left my sleep
Not a shade but her's to keep.
Yet I said, 'tis best to be
Free—and I again was free.
But there came a lovelier one;
She undid all they had done:
I loved—I love her—ah, how well!
Language has no power to tell.
Now the wonder is to me
How I ever lived while free?