Contents -Volume INDEX -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

Song: ‘’Tis said that absence conquers love!’

By Frederick William Thomas (1806–1866)

’TIS said that absence conquers love!

But, oh! believe it not;

I’ve tried, alas! its power to prove,

But thou art not forgot.

Lady, though fate has bid us part,

Yet still thou art as dear,

As fixed in this devoted heart,

As when I clasped thee here.

I plunge into the busy crowd,

And smile to hear thy name;

And yet, as if I thought aloud,

They know me still the same;

And when the wine-cup passes round,

I toast some other fair,—

But when I ask my heart the sound,

Thy name is echoed there.

And when some other name I learn,

And try to whisper love,

Still will my heart to thee return

Like the returning dove.

In vain! I never can forget,

And would not be forgot;

For I must bear the same regret,

Whate’er may be my lot.

E’en as the wounded bird will seek

Its favorite bower to die,

So, lady! I would hear thee speak,

And yield my parting sigh.

’Tis said that absence conquers love!

But, oh! believe it not;

I’ve tried, alas! its power to prove,

But thou art not forgot.