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"Of vassal or of knight's degree,
"Could vie in vanities with me;
"For I had strength, youth, gaiety,

"A port, not like to this ye see,

"But smooth, as all is rugged now;

"For time, and care, and war, have plough'd 190

"My very soul from out my brow;

"And thus I should be disavow'd

"By all my kind and kin, could they

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"This change was wrought, too, long ere age

"Had ta'en my features for his page:

"With years, ye know, have not declined

"My strength, my courage, or my mind,

"Or at this hour I should not be

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Telling old tales beneath a tree,

"With starless skies my canopy.

"But let me on: Theresa's form

"Methinks it glides before me now,
"Between me and yon chestnut's bough,
"The memory is so quick and warm;
"And yet I find no words to tell

"The shape of her I loved so well:

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"She had the Asiatic eye,

"Such as our Turkish neighbourhood

"Hath mingled with our Polish blood,

"Dark as above us is the sky;

"But through it stole a tender light,

"Like the first moonrise at midnight;

Large, dark, and swimming in the stream, "Which seem'd to melt to its own beam;

"All love, half languor, and half fire,
“Like saints that at the stake expire,
"And lift their raptured looks on high,
"As though it were a joy to die.

"A brow like a midsummer lake,

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Transparent with the sun therein, "When waves no murmur dare to make,

"And heaven beholds her face within. "A cheek and lip-but why proceed? "I loved her then-I love her still; "And such as I am, love indeed

"In fierce extremes-in good and ill. "But still we love even in our rage, "And haunted to our very age

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"With the vain shadow of the past,

"As is Mazeppa to the last.

VI.

"We met-we gazed-I saw, and sigh'd,
"She did not speak, and yet replied;
"There are ten thousand tones and signs

"We hear and see, but none defines-
Involuntary sparks of thought,

"Which strike from out the heart o'erwrought,

"And form a strange intelligence,

"Alike mysterious and intense,

"Which link the burning chain that binds,

"Without their will, young hearts and minds;

"Conveying, as the electric wire,

"We know not how, the absorbing fire.—

"I saw, and sigh'd-in silence wept,
"And still reluctant distance kept,
"Until I was made known to her,
"And we might then and there confer
"Without suspicion-then, even then,

"I long'd, and was resolved to speak;

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"But on my lips they died again,

"The accents tremulous and weak,

"Until one hour. There is a game,

"A frivolous and foolish play,
"Wherewith we while away the day;

"It is-I have forgot the name—

"And we to this, it seems, were set,

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By some strange chance, which I forget: "I reck'd not if I won or lost,

"It was enough for me to be

"So near to hear, and oh! to see

"The being whom I loved the most."I watch'd her as a sentinel,

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(May ours this dark night watch as well!)

"Until I saw, and thus it was,

"That she was pensive, nor perceived

"Her occupation, nor was grieved

"Nor glad to lose or gain; but still

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Play'd on for hours, as if her will

"Yet bound her to the place, though not

"That hers might be the winning lot.

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"Then through my brain the thought did pass

"Even as a flash of lightning there,

"That there was something in her air

"Which would not doom me to despair;

"And on the thought my words broke forth,
"All incoherent as they were—

"Their eloquence was little worth,
"But yet she listen'd-'tis enough-
"Who listens once will listen twice;
"Her heart, be sure, is not of ice,
"And one refusal no rebuff.

VII.

"I loved, and was beloved again

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They tell me, Sire, you never knew "Those gentle frailties; if 'tis true, "I shorten all my joy or pain;

"To

you 'twould seem absurd as vain; "But all men are not born to reign,

"Or o'er their passions, or as you

"Thus o'er themselves and nations too.

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