Susan: Lines to ____ ____

Lines to ____ _____

"When other lips and other hearts
Their tales of love shall tell,
In language whose excess imparts
The power they feel so well;
There may perhaps in such a scene
Some recollections be
Of days that have as happy been
And you'll remember me

When coldness or deceits shall slight
The beauty now they prize,
And deems it but a faded light
Which beams within your eyes:
When hollow hearts shall wear a mask
'Twill break your own to see;
In such a moment, I but ask
That you'll remember me."

Acknowledgments
Notes Susan's use of quotation marks is a clue that the poem is not original. It is in fact an aria from "The Bohemian Girl", a dramatic opera in three acts by Irish-born Michael William Balfe with libretto by Alfred Bunn. The opera was first performed on November 27, 1843 at Drury Lane, London, and was brought to New York and Philadelphia the following year. Although panned by the critics, it was a great popular success and was the only British opera of the nineteenth century to be accepted internationally. Published separately from the opera, this particular song sold over 80,000 copies within a year. As a poem by Bunn it has been included in several anthologies. (Granger's Index of Poetry, Fourth Edition, 1953, states that it also has been wrongly attributed to Charles Henry Webb.) Susan's copy varies only slightly from the opera libretto published by Charles E. Burden, Steinway Hall, New York.

References