Madness is easier far then hopeless Love. I parted thus, but knew not what to do; Nor where I went; nor did I care to know; With folded Arms, with weeping Eyes declin’d, } I search the unknown shade, I cou’d not find, } And mixt my constant Sighs with flying Wind. } By slow unsteady steps the Paths I trace, Which undesign’d conduct me to a place Fit for a Soul distrest; obscur’d with shade, Lonely and fit for Love and Sorrow made; The Murmuring Boughs themselves together twist, And ‘twou’d allow to Grief her self some rest. Inviron’d ‘tis with lofty Mountains round, From whence the Eccho’s, Sighs, and Crys rebound; Here in the midst and thickest of the Wood, Cover’d with bending Shades a Castle stood, Where _Absence_ that dejected Maid remains, Who nothing but her Sorrow entertains. [5] Duty. ABSENCE. _Her mourning languid Eyes are rarely shown,_ _Unless to those afflicted like her own;_ _Her lone Apartment all obscure as Night,_ _Discover’d only by a glimmering Light:_ _Weeping she sate, her Face with Grief dismaid,_ _Which all its natural sweetness has decaid;_ _Yet in despight of Grief there does appear,_ } _The ruin’d Monuments of what was fair,_ } _E’r cruel_ Love _and_ Grief _had took possession there._ } _These made her old without the aid of Years;_ } _Worn out, and faint with lingring hopes and fears,_ } _She seldom answers ought but with her Tears._ } _No Train attends, she only is obey’d_ _By_ Melancholy, _that soft, silent Maid:_ _A Maid that fits her Humour every way,_ _With whom she passes all the tedious day:_ _No other object can her Mind content,_ _She Feeds and Flatters all her languishment;_ _The noisy Streams that from high Mountains fall;_ _And water all the Neighbouring flowry Vale:_ _The Murmurs of the Rivulets that glide,_ _Against the bending Seges on the side;_ _Of mournful Birds the sad and tuneful Noats,_ _The Bleats of straggling Lambs, and new yean’d Goats:_ _The distant Pipe of some lone Mountain Swain,_ } _Who to his injur’d Passion fits his strain;_ } _Is all the Harmony her Soul can entertain._ }