Poems (Betham)/Another
ANOTHER,Written earlier.
Adieu to old England! adieu to my friends! Though fortune and fame I pursue,On thus looking around me, I cannot conceal, How reluctant I bid them adieu!
My heart sinks within me, I sigh to the gale, Thus slowly receding from shore,While fancy still whispers some terrible tale, Ah, perhaps I may see it no more!
There all that I love, that I value, remain, That only awakens my fears,For will the same spot its dear inmates contain, On the lapse of two lingering years?
They may smile in good fortune, or weep in distress. I shall know not a word of their fate!No pain can I soften, no sorrow redress! I may come, when, alas! 'tis too late!
I can fly without fear to encounter the foe, To my earliest wish I am true;But I cannot unmov'd quit the friends that I love, Or bid my dear country adieu!