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PERHAPS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: To horse! To horse! I mount with speed
Last Line: Perhaps.
Subject(s): Love - Complaints; Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations


To horse! To horse! I mount with speed,
For we must travel far, my steed,
To find repose:
Thy master's brain is crazed with care
And we must gallop apace, but where?
Who knows?

Oh! how that golden-haired coquette
Dreamed she had caught me in the net
Of her disdain!
The Siren is so fair, so cold,
That the same kingdom cannot hold
Us twain.

Around her castle-walls each day
My steed and I with spirits gay
Were wont to roam:
Yon path familiar grown to each
We now must shun or we should reach
Her home.

Those faithless gods to which I bowed,
Her charms that lured me made her proud;
Her hair, her eyes
Blue as the cloudless heaven above,
Her lips, that seemed to breathe of love
In sighs.

At length my heart hath burst its chain,
And as my freedom I regain
I curse her pride,
And to my lips, that day by day
Murmured "I love thee," now I say,
"Ye lied."

Shame on the heartless wayward elf
Who will not tenderly herself
My passion share,
But jealously refuses still
To let me wander at my will
Elsewhere!

On, on, my steed! 'tis just the hour
That, in the gloaming, to her bower
Her slave would bring:
Now from the hateful spot I fly,
And with no tear-drop in my eye,
I sing.

But what is here? The velvet lawn,
Her home, amid the shade withdrawn—
It must be so—
O thoughtless man! O heedless brute!
That failed to recognize which route
To go!

Turn back! but no—stand still! for she
Is smiling at the casement. See!
Her finger taps.
'Twere churlish not to say "Good-bye;"
When daylight dawns, my steed and I
Afar from Circe's bower will fly,—
Perhaps.





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