William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909.
As Slow Our ShipThomas Moore (17791852)
A
Against the wind was cleaving,
Her trembling pennant still look’d back
To that dear Isle ’twas leaving,
So loath we part from all we love,
From all the links that bind us;
So turn our hearts as on we rove,
To those we’ve left behind us.
We talk, with joyous seeming—
With smiles that might as well be tears,
So faint, so sad their beaming;
While memory brings us back again
Each earthly tie that twined us,
Oh, sweet’s the cup that circles then
To those we’ve left behind us.
Some isle or vale enchanting,
Where all looks flowery, wild and sweet,
And nought but love is wanting;
We think how great had been our bliss,
If Heaven had but assigned us
To live and die in scenes like this,
With some we’ve left behind us.
When eastward darkly going,
To gaze upon that light they leave,
Still faint behind them glowing—
So, when the close of pleasure’s day
To gloom hath near consigned us,
We turn to catch one fading ray
Of joy that’s left behind us.