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 thou
* 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