I

Remember me! Those words so fond, that greeting
The earliest, latest, in its tone expressed
All the mute pangs with which the heart is beating,
All that inspired, raised, wrung the human breast.
How in that sound is all forgot, forgiven!
The chain is rent that bound us; we are driven,
Atoms of chance, before the winds of heaven;
Yet, by that love which was, remember me.

II

By the far past of memories elysian,
Moments of rapture, hours of aching pain,
All melted now in that departed vision
Awakened passion never dreams again;
By thy own life and all it holds the nearest,
By those past joys and thoughts, the fondest, dearest,
By that dim future which thou hop'st yet fearest,
By thine own happiness, remember me.

III

Not in the hour when worldly thraldoms vex thee,
When habit chills the manners as the heart;
Not in the lighted halls where fashion decks thee,
When thou dost smile, and play'st so well thy part,
All bosoms save thine own thou art deceiving;
But when the hours are fled, the triflers leaving,
When all are gone, the pageant scene bereaving
Of its false splendour, then, remember me.

IV

Time may roll on, it cannot quench the spirit
Of the undying love I feel is mine;
The past is the immortal we inherit,
Where change may enter not, nor life decline;
The flower that sheds its breath of fragrance o'er thee,
The sang, the last sung when I stood before thee,
Entering thy heart, shall all its vows restore thee,
And gently teach thee to remember me.

V

When through those citron groves we loved thou walkest,
'Mid vines that braided like thy tresses grew;
When in thy garden's latticed bowers thou talkest
With thine own heart beneath the noontide dew;
When o'er the west the orange hues are dying,
When o'er thy cheek the twilight air is sighing,
Think 'tis my voice responsive, thine replying
To thy thought's echo, and, remember me.

VI

And when red autumn's leaves fall round thee, spreading
Their last rich hues on that enchanted ground;
When earth herself some natural tears is shedding
That even in paradise must change be found;
Think, that, while fade her hues, the frailest, sweetest,
While the flowers droop, the loveliest still the fleetest,
While on each step decay and change thou meetest,
Love lives unchanged, and then remember me.

VII

Then when the night her starry isles uncloses,
Isles made by love, where love in vain would flee,
Ere on the couch thy fairy form reposes,
Ere breathed communion with thy God and thee;
Even in that silent hour when thou art kneeling,
With those eyes raised, thine inmost soul revealing,
Then let my name, upon thy memory stealing,
Rise to thy lips, and thus, — remember me!