Poems of Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in The Literary Souvenir, 1835/The Billet-Doux
THE BILLET-DOUX
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THE BILLET-DOUX.
BY MISS L. E. LANDON.
I.
Yes! sweet letter, I will keep thee
Years—alas! it may be years;
Midnight's lonely hour shall steep thee
With the tenderest, truest tears.
’T is his last—his farewell letter,
Doomed 'mid distant lands to rove;
He may find a brighter, better,
Never a more faithful love.
II.
Yet to such vain fear replying,
When the days pass long and lone;
Still my heart, on his relying,
For his truth will pledge its own.
Ah! the love from childhood cherished
Links a sweet and household tie;
If such old affection perished,
All life's early hopes must die.
III.
He will think, when summer weather
Lights some foreign forest glade,
How we used to roam together
In the greenwood's golden shade.
When strange flowers are round him blowing,
Purple in their eastern pride;
He'll recall the wild ones growing
By his native river's side.
IV.
On some stranger's hearth when gazing
With a home-awakened heart,
He 'll but see the wood fire blazing
Where we wont to sit apart.
All life's dearest links enthrall thee,
Wheresoever thou may'st roam;
Every thought that can recall me,
Must recall, too, youth and home.
V.
Yes! I see the gliding motion
Of his vessel on the deep;
Oh thou far and fearful ocean,
Carefully my loved one keep.
Ah, ye white sails slowly sweeping,
Like the wings of some vast bird,
Stay one moment for my weeping:
Let my last farewell be heard.
VI.
Tell him how each morning breathing
Shall my constant prayer ascend;
How the earliest flowers enwreathing,
I shall at our altar bend.
May St. Geneviève watch o'er him,
Every night I'll seek her shrine;
May she to his home restore him,
To a home that will be mine.