Can I forget--canst thou forget, When playing with thy golden hair, How quick thy fluttering heart did move? Oh! by my soul, I see thee yet, With eyes so languid, breast so fair, And lips, though silent, breathing love. 3. When thus reclining on my breast, Those eyes threw back a glance so sweet, As half reproach'd yet rais'd desire, And still we near and nearer prest, And still our glowing lips would meet, As if in kisses to expire. 4. And then those pensive eyes would close, And bid their lids each other seek, Veiling the azure orbs below; While their long lashes' darken'd gloss Seem'd stealing o'er thy brilliant cheek, Like raven's plumage smooth'd on snow. 5. I dreamt last night our love return'd, And, sooth to say, that very dream Was sweeter in its phantasy, Than if for other hearts I burn'd, For eyes that ne'er like thine could beam In Rapture's wild reality. 6. Then tell me not, remind me not, [ii] Of hours which, though for ever gone, Can still a pleasing dream restore, [iii] Till thou and I shall be forgot, And senseless, as the mouldering stone Which tells that we shall be no more. Aug. 13, 1808. [First published, 1809.] [Footnote i: _A Love Song. To----. [Imit. and Transl., p. 197.] [Footnote ii: _Remind me not, remind me not_. [MS. L.] ] [Footnote iii: _Must still_. [MS. L.] ] TO A YOUTHFUL FRIEND. [i] 1. Few years have pass'd since thou and I Were firmest friends, at least in name, And Childhood's gay sincerity Preserved our feelings long the same. [ii] 2. But now, like me, too well thou know'st [iii] What trifles oft the heart recall; And those who once have loved the most Too soon forget they lov'd at all. [iv] 3. And such the change the heart displays, So frail is early friendship's reign, [v] A month's brief lapse, perhaps a day's, Will view thy mind estrang'd again. [vi] 4. If so, it never shall be mine To mourn the loss of such a heart; The fault was Nature's fault, not thine, Which made thee fickle as thou art. 5. As rolls the Ocean's changing tide, So human feelings ebb and flow; And who would in a breast confide Where stormy passions ever glow? 6. It boots not that, together bred, Our childish days were days of joy: My spring of life has quickly fled; Thou, too, hast ceas'd to be a boy. 7. And when we bid adieu to youth, Slaves to the specious World's controul, We sigh a long farewell to truth; That World corrupts the noblest soul. 8. Ah, joyous season! when the mind [1] Dares all things boldly but to lie; When Thought ere spoke is unconfin'd, And sparkles in the placid eye. 9. Not so in Man's maturer years, When Man himself is but a tool; When Interest sways our hopes and fears, And all must love and hate by rule.