When First I Met Thee.

When first I met thee, warm and young,         There shone such truth about thee.     And on thy lip such promise hung,         I did not dare to doubt thee.     I saw the change, yet still relied,         Still clung with hope the fonder,     And thought, tho' false to all beside,         From me thou couldst not wander.             But go, deceiver! go,                 The heart, whose hopes could make it             Trust one so false, so low,                 Deserves that thou shouldst break it.     When every tongue thy follies named,         I fled the unwelcome story;     Or found, in even the faults they blamed,         Some gleams of future glory.     I still was true, when nearer friends         Conspired to wrong, to slight thee;     The heart that now thy falsehood rends,         Would then have bled to right thee,             But go, deceiver! go,--                 Some day, perhaps, thou'lt waken             From pleasure's dream, to know                 The grief of hearts forsaken.     Even now, tho' youth its bloom has shed,         No lights of age adorn thee:     The few, who loved thee once, have fled,         And they who flatter scorn thee.     Thy midnight cup is pledged to slaves,         No genial ties enwreath it;     The smiling there, like light on graves,         Has rank cold hearts beneath it.             Go--go--tho' worlds were thine,                 I would not now surrender             One taintless tear of mine                 For all thy guilty splendor!     And days may come, thou false one! yet,         When even those ties shall sever;     When thou wilt call, with vain regret,         On her thou'st lost for ever;     On her who, in thy fortune's fall,         With smiles had still received thee,     And gladly died to prove thee all         Her fancy first believed thee.             Go--go--'tis vain to curse,                 'Tis weakness to upbraid thee;             Hate cannot wish thee worse                 Than guilt and shame have made thee.