William Cowper



ON HER ENDEAVOURING TO CONCEAL
HER GRIEF AT PARTING


[Written 1754 (?). Published by Croft, 1825.]

Ah! wherefore should my weeping maid suppress
    Those gentle signs of undissembled woe?
When from soft love proceeds the deep distress,
    Ah! why forbid the willing tears to flow?

Since for my sake each dear translucent drop
    Breaks forth, best witness of thy truth sincere,
My lips should drink the precious mixture up,
    And, ere it falls, receive the trembling tear.

Trust me, these symptoms of thy faithful heart,
    In absence, shall my dearest hope sustain,
Delia! since such thy sorrow that we part,
    Such when we meet thy joy shall be again.

Hard is that heart and unsubdued by love
    That feels no pain, nor ever heaves a sigh,
Such hearts the fiercest passions only prove,
    Or freeze in cold insensibility.

Oh! then indulge thy grief, nor fear to tell
    The gentle source from whence thy sorrows flow!
Nor think it weakness when we love to feel,
    Nor think it weakness what we feel to show.








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The Complete Poetical Works of William Cowper.
H. S. Milford, ed.
London: Henry Frowde, 1905. 277-8.




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