218 SELECT POETRY

When the dim distance cheats mine eye, and
through the gathering tears,

Thy bright form, for a moment, like the false
mirage! appears ;

Slow and unmounted shall I roam, with weary
step alone,

Where, with fleet step, and joyous bound, thou
oft has borne me on;

And sitting down by that green well, I'll pause
and sadly think,

“Tt was here he bowed his glossy neck when last
I saw him drink!”

When last I saw thee drink /—Away ! the fevered
dream is o’er—

I could not live a day, and know that we should
meet no more !

They tempted me, my beautiful !—for hunger's
power is strong—

They tempted me, my beautiful! but I have loved
too long.

Who said that I had given thee up? who said
that thou wast sold ?

Tis false—'tis false, my Arab steed! I fling them
back their gold !

Thus, thus, I leap upon thy back, and scour the
distant plains ;

Away ! who overtakes us now shall claim thee for
his pains !

Mrs, Norton.

1 Mirage—a deception of «he sight, by whiea objects 0s
the earth appear raised into the air.