Poetical Fragments from Ethel Churchill Volume II/The Past

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

For works with similar titles, see The Past.

CHAPTER XI.

THE PAST.

Weep for the love that fate forbids;
    Yet loves, unhoping, on,
Though every light that once illumed
    Its early path be gone.

Weep for the love that must resign
    The soul's enchanted dream,
And float, like some neglected bark,
    Adown life's lonely stream!

Weep for the love that cannot change;
    Like some unholy spell,
It hangs upon the life that loved
    So vainly and so well.

Weep for the weary heart condemned
    To one long, lonely sigh,
Whose lot has been in this cold world,
    To dream, despair, and die!

In Blanchard

Altered from Mardale Head in Fisher’s Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835