Robert Burns (1759–1796). Poems and Songs.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 415. Song—The last time I cam o’er the Moor |
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| THE LAST time I came o’er the moor, | |
| And left Maria’s dwelling, | |
| What throes, what tortures passing cure, | |
| Were in my bosom swelling: | |
| Condemn’d to see my rival’s reign, | 5 |
| While I in secret languish; | |
| To feel a fire in every vein, | |
| Yet dare not speak my anguish. | |
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| Love’s veriest wretch, despairing, I | |
| Fain, fain, my crime would cover; | 10 |
| Th’ unweeting groan, the bursting sigh, | |
| Betray the guilty lover. | |
| I know my doom must be despair, | |
| Thou wilt nor canst relieve me; | |
| But oh, Maria, hear my prayer, | 15 |
| For Pity’s sake forgive me! | |
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| The music of thy tongue I heard, | |
| Nor wist while it enslav’d me; | |
| I saw thine eyes, yet nothing fear’d, | |
| Till fear no more had sav’d me: | 20 |
| The unwary sailor thus, aghast, | |
| The wheeling torrent viewing, | |
| ’Mid circling horrors yields at last | |
| To overwhelming ruin. | |
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