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THE DESPAIR.
Beneath this gloomy shade,
By Nature only for my sorrows made,
I'll spend this voice in cries;
In tears I'll waste these eyes,
By Love so vainly fed;
So Lust, of old, the Deluge punished.
"Ah, wretched youth!" said I;
Ah, wretched youth!" twice did I sadly cry;
Ah, wretched youth!" the fields and floods reply.
By Nature only for my sorrows made,
I'll spend this voice in cries;
In tears I'll waste these eyes,
By Love so vainly fed;
So Lust, of old, the Deluge punished.
"Ah, wretched youth!" said I;
Ah, wretched youth!" twice did I sadly cry;
Ah, wretched youth!" the fields and floods reply.
When thoughts of Love I entertain,
I meet no words but "Never," and "In vain."
"Never," alas! that dreadful name
Which fuels the internal flame:
"Never" my time to come must waste;
"In vain" torments the present and the past.
"In vain, in vain," said I;
"In vain, in vain!" twice did I sadly cry;
"In vain, in vain!" the fields and floods reply.
I meet no words but "Never," and "In vain."
"Never," alas! that dreadful name
Which fuels the internal flame:
"Never" my time to come must waste;
"In vain" torments the present and the past.
"In vain, in vain," said I;
"In vain, in vain!" twice did I sadly cry;
"In vain, in vain!" the fields and floods reply.
No more shall fields or floods do so;
For I to shades more dark and silent go:
All this world's noise appears to me
A dull, ill-acted comedy:
No comfort to my wounded sight,
In the sun's busy and impertinent light.
For I to shades more dark and silent go:
All this world's noise appears to me
A dull, ill-acted comedy:
No comfort to my wounded sight,
In the sun's busy and impertinent light.
