Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake

Matthew Prior (1664–1721)

A Song: ‘In vain you tell your parting lover’

IN vain you tell your parting lover,

You wish fair winds may waft him over.

Alas! what winds can happy prove,

That bear me far from what I love?

Alas! what dangers on the main

Can equal those that I sustain,

From slighted vows, and cold disdain?

Be gentle, and in pity choose

To wish the wildest tempests loose:

That thrown again upon the coast,

Where first my shipwrecked heart was lost,

I may once more repeat my pain;

Once more in dying notes complain

Of slighted vows, and cold disdain.