The kiss dear maid, thy lips have left The kiss dear maid, thy lips have left,     Shall never part from mine, Till happier hours restore the gift     Untainted back to thine. The parting glance that fondly gleams,     An equal love may see, The tear that from the eyelid streams,     Can weep no change in me. I ask no pledge to make me blest,     In gazing when alone; Nor one memorial for a breast,     Whose thoughts are all thine own. By day or night, in weal or woe     That heart no longer free Must bear the love it cannot show     And silent ache for thee.

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  Acknowledgments

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Notes This is Byron's "On Parting", written in Athens in March of 1811. Byron's original was five quatrains. Susan has omitted the fourth quatrain and combined the remaining four into two eight-line stanzas. She has also changed much of the punctuation and several individual words. The version below is from The Poetical Works of Lord Byron Complete in One Volume, D. Appleton and Company, 1894.

ON PARTING.

The kiss, dear maid! thy lip has left
    Shall never part from mine,
Till happier hours restore the gift
    Untainted back to thine.

Thy parting glance, which fondly beams,
    An equal love may see:
The tear that from thine eyelid streams
    Can weep no change in me.

I ask no pledge to make me blest
    In gazing when alone;
Nor one memorial for a breast,
    Whose thoughts are all thine own.

Nor need I write - to tell the tale
    My pen were doubly week:
Oh! what can idle words avail,
    Unless the heart could speak?
By day or night in weal or wo,
    That heart, no longer free,
Must bear the love it cannot show,
    And silent, ache for thee.

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References

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