Farewel, companions of my secret sighs,
Love-haunted streams, and vales besprent with dew!
Pensive, I see the ridgy hills arise,
Which must for ever hide you from my view,

A fleeting shadow was my promis'd peace,
The baseless fabric of a dream, my rest;
I laid me down in confidence of ease,
And meedless sorrow burst my bleeding breast.

See, yonder fleets the visionary scheme,
The fond illusion of a simple maid;
The sweets of love, A LEXIS , and with him
The fragrant meadow, and the cooling shade!

Say, my A LEXIS , was it fancy'd bliss
You us'd to picture by yon falling rill?
O, say, where is it?—must it end in this?
O, still deceive, and I'll believe you still!

Say, fortune yet has happier days in store;
Days big with transport, and with raptures new;
O! say I'm your's, I ask, I hope no more;
But only say so, and I'll think it true.

But whither wanders my distemper'd brain,
On seas of fancy and vagary tost?
Before me lies a bleak extended plain,
And love and rapture are for ever lost.