English Poetry. Anna Laetitia Barbauld. Song 5 (AS near a weeping spring reclin’d). Анна-Летиция Барбо.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld (Анна-Летиция Барбо)

Song 5 (AS near a weeping spring reclin’d)

AS near a weeping spring reclin'd
The beauteous Araminta pin'd,
And mourn'd a false ungrateful youth;
While dying echoes caught the sound,
And spread the soft complaints around
Of broken vows and alter'd truth;

An aged shepherd heard her moan,
And thus in pity's kindest tone
Address'd the lost despairing maid:
Cease, cease unhappy fair to grieve,
For sounds, tho' sweet, can ne'er relieve
A breaking heart by love betray'd.

Why should'st them waste such precious showers,
That fall like dew on wither'd flowers,
But dying passion ne'er restor'd?
In beauty's empire is no mean,
And woman, either slave or queen,
Is quickly scorn'd when not ador'd.

Those liquid pearls from either eye,
Which might an eastern empire buy,
Unvalued here and fruitless fall;
No art the season can renew
When love was young, and Damon true;
No tears a wandering heart recall.

Cease, cease to grieve, thy tears are vain,
Should those fair orbs in drops of rain
Vie with a weeping southern sky:
For hearts o'ercome with love and grief
All nature yields but one relief;
Die, hapless Araminta, die. 

Anna Laetitia Barbauld’s other poems:

1. Song 6 (WHEN first upon your tender cheek)
2. Song 4 (WHEN gentle Celia first I knew)
3. Hymn 5 (AWAKE, my soul! lift up thine eyes)
4. Backwardness of the Spring 1771
5. Song 2 (IF ever thou didst joy to bind)

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