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Absence

By Thomas Campbell

Topics: classic

'Tis not the loss of love's assurance,     It is not doubting what thou art,     But 'tis the too, too long endurance     Of absence, that afflicts my heart.     The fondest thoughts two hearts can cherish,     When each is lonely doom'd to weep,     Are fruits on desert isles that perish,     Or riches buried in the deep.     What though, untouch'd by jealous madness,     Our bosom's peace may fall to wreck;     Th' undoubting heart, that breaks with sadness,     Is but more slowly doom'd to break.     Absence! is not the soul torn by it     From more than light, or life, or breath?     'Tis Lethe's gloom, but not its quiet,     The pain without the peace of death.

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"'Tis not the loss of love's assurance,..."

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"'Tis not the loss of love's assurance,..." by Thomas Campbell

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Thomas Campbell

About Thomas Campbell

Thomas Campbell (1777–1844) was a Scottish poet best known for "The Pleasures of Hope" and war poems like "Hohenlinden" and "Ye Mariners of England." He helped found the University of London.

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