| AS slow our ship her foamy track | |
| Against the wind was cleaving, | |
| Her trembling pennant still look'd back | |
| To that dear isle 'twas leaving. | |
| So loth we part from all we love, | 5 |
| From all the links that bind us; | |
| So turn our hearts, as on we rove, | |
| To those we've left behind us! | |
| |
| When, round the bowl, of vanish'd years | |
| We talk with joyous seeming— | 10 |
| With smiles that might as well be tears, | |
| So faint, so sad their beaming; | |
| While memory brings us back again | |
| Each early tie that twined us, | |
| Oh, sweet's the cup that circles then | 15 |
| To those we've left behind us! | |
| |
| And when, in other climes, we meet | |
| Some isle or vale enchanting, | |
| Where all looks flowery, wild, and sweet, | |
| And nought but love is wanting; | 20 |
| We think how great had been our bliss | |
| If Heaven had but assign'd us | |
| To live and die in scenes like this, | |
| With some we've left behind us! | |
| |
| As travellers oft look back at eve | 25 |
| When eastward darkly going, | |
| To gaze upon that light they leave | |
| Still faint behind them glowing,— | |
| So, when the close of pleasure's day | |
| To gloom hath near consign'd us, | 30 |
| We turn to catch one fading ray | |
| Of joy that's left behind us. | |
| |
