Literary Gazette 29th November 1823, Page 763
ORIGINAL POETRY.
POETIC SKETCHES.
Fourth Series.
SKETCH III.— THE FALSE ONE.
And what must woman suffer, thus betrayed?
Her heart's most warm and precious feelings made
But things wherewith to wound; that heart so weak,
So soft, laid open to the vulture's beak,
Its sweet revealings given up to scorn
It burns to bear, and yet that must be borne:
And, sorer still, that bitterest emotion,
To know, the shrine which had our soul's devotion
Is that of a false deity; to look
Upon the eyes we worshipped, and brook
Their cold reply. Yet these are all for her.
The rude world's outcast and love's wanderer.
Alas! that love, which is so sweet a thing,
Should ever cause guilt, grief and suffering;
That the lorn heart should ever have to brood
O'er wrongs and ruin in its solitude;
And, worst of all, that ever love should be
Forgetful of its own dear memory!
——————
Ride on, ride with thy bridal company.[1]
Ride on thy coal-black steed, thou false one! ride.
How gallant is thy bearing, and how proud
Wave the white glancings of thy plume! Ride on,
And at a thousand shout thy name, heed not
If one shall deeply curse it. When thy heart
Beats with the presence of thy fair young bride,
Remember not the one which thou hast left,
A jewel tarnished in its light, to break;
And when her blush looks beautiful, forget
The blush you kissed, when on your bosom lay
The now forsaken Maid of Arragon!
And when before the nobles of the land,
Beneath the proud cathedral's fretted aisle,
You plight your marriage vows, think not of those
You breathed in the lone citron grove, the stars
Witnesses of the contract. Fare thee well!—
- ↑ Milman wrote the hymn 'Ride on, ride on in majesty' around 1822 but it wasn't published until 1827, so there would appear to be no connection.
