Damon to Delia

Damon to Delia, in a declining state of health, and upon a visit to her friends at a distance.

Haste, lazy time; come on, blest hour
 That brings her to my arms
And puts again in Damon’s power
 His Delia’s long lost charms

Soft is her heart and mild her eye
 And lovely all her frame
With her no other nymph can vie
 So sweet no other name

Restore ye distant plains restore
 The sunshine of my days
Ah, let this tedious night no more
 Bewail her absent rays

With her fair Pleasure’s still more fair
 Without her joy is not
Her hand unfurls the brow of care
 And trouble is forgot

Come Delia, come no truer heart
 Hath Nature link’d to thine
Come in thy grief, let me have part
 And take thy share of mine

Ah, why should sickness fade that face
 Why sorrow waste that form
A flow’ret of so fair a race
 Should feel no blasting storm

Could rude Affliction see her worth
 His eye would melt in tears
No pain of her would e’er call forth
 A child’s or husband’s tears

O thou¹ who with unfeeling heart
 Chastisest human crimes
Recall, recall that erring dart
 And give her happier times

Banish’d from me, from mine, from home
 Where none like she can please
Why should the guiltless wanderer roam
 In quest of health and ease

Her artless babes with eyes full fraught
 Demand a mother’s care
That she their welfare ceaseless sought
 Why should it hers impair

Why should her Damon’s heart be broke
 His truth will never fail
Ev’n when her virgin hand he took
 He lov’d her not so well

Ne’er with her will why by her ills
Must she destroy his peace
’Twill break her heart that thus she deals
A wound she cannot ease

If Damon’s help can give relief
 Or aught his prayers obtain
His Delia’s eye shall know no grief
 His Delia’s heart no pain

But vigorous health and lively cheer
 Shall animate her frame
And she thro’ many a blissful year
 Shall find his love the same

Our babes shall live, and live to grow
 Beneath our tending care
So all we wish to be and know
 To all that’s good and fair

Their virtue form’d this labour o’er
 And for a while enjoy’d
When life’s best scenes can please no more
 We’ll yield to time’s strong tide

At every ebb more close we’ll grasp
 In friendship’s firm embrace
’Till in one moment one last gasp
 Shall both our souls displace

Death shan’t divide whom love combin’d
 And melted into one
Heav’n were not Heav’n to either mind
 Where either were alone

No, my Best Life, the same sweet bowers
 Shall shade us both above
And there with all that we’ve call’d ours
 We’ll ever live and love

June 19th 1810