Stanzas to Augusta

  1. 1When all around grew drear and dark,
  2. 2And reason half withheld her ray--
  3. 3And Hope but shed a dying spark
  4. 4Which more misled my lonely way;
  5. 5In that deep midnight of the mind,
  6. 6And that internal strife of heart,
  7. 7When dreading to be deemed too kind,
  8. 8The weak despair--the cold depart;
  9. 9When Fortune changed--and Love fled far,
  10. 10And Hatred's shafts flew thick and fast,
  11. 11Thou wert the solitary star
  12. 12Which rose and set not to the last.
  13. 13Oh! blest be thine unbroken light!
  14. 14That watched me as a Seraph's eye,
  15. 15And stood between me and the night,
  16. 16For ever shining sweetly nigh.
  17. 17And when the cloud upon us came,
  18. 18Which strove to blacken o'er thy ray--
  19. 19Then purer spread its gentle flame,
  20. 20And dashed the darkness all away.
  21. 21Still may thy Spirit dwell on mine,
  22. 22And teach it what to brave or brook--
  23. 23There's more in one soft word of thine
  24. 24Than in the world's defied rebuke.
  25. 25Thou stood'st, as stands a lovely tree,
  26. 26That still unbroke, though gently bent,
  27. 27Still waves with fond fidelity
  28. 28Its boughs above a monument.
  29. 29The winds might rend--the skies might pour,
  30. 30But there thou wert--and still wouldst be
  31. 31Devoted in the stormiest hour
  32. 32To shed thy weeping leaves o'er me.
  33. 33But thou and thine shall know no blight,
  34. 34Whatever fate on me may fall;
  35. 35For Heaven in sunshine will requite
  36. 36The kind--and thee the most of all.
  37. 37Then let the ties of baffled love
  38. 38Be broken--thine will never break;
  39. 39Thy heart can feel--but will not move;
  40. 40Thy soul, though soft, will never shake.
  41. 41And these, when all was lost beside,
  42. 42Were found and still are fixed in thee:--
  43. 43And bearing still a breast so tried,
  44. 44Earth is no desert--ev'n to me.