Then Farewell, Thou False One! Poem by Mary Anne Browne

Then farewell, thou false one! -Ah ! who'd have thought Sin
In that fond seeming heart could have e'er been a guest ?
And that Folly and Vice could be rankling within
The fair snowy bounds of that beautiful breast ?

Thy form by thy beauty was all lighted up ;
But within it was sorrow, - beneath it was death :
As the blush that is thrown o'er the winebibber's cup ;
But colours the woe that is lurking beneath.

The heaven, when 'tis seen in the day-time afar,
May seem faultless in beauty, and shining in light ;
But deprived of each beautiful fair-beaming star,
Oh how dark would it be in the gloom of the night

And it is as thee ;- for thy beauty may glow
Without virtue, e'en bright 'neath the blaze of thy heaven ;-
But when Pleasure's gay sun is quick sinking below
The horizon of life, - oh ! how dark will be even !

Oh! who would have thought that the soft smiling rays
Which thy bright-beaming eyes oft upon me would dart,
Could e'er have become the volcano's wild blaze,
To consume all the hopes of this once happy heart


Then farewell, thou false one ! for ever I'm gone ; -
I leave thee - the sport of thy hopes and thy fears -
To brood o'er thy folly and suffering alone ;
To heave penitent sighs, and shed penitent tears.