I. <br />When youth his fairy reign began, <br />Ere sorrow had proclaimed me man; <br />While peace the present hour beguiled, <br />And all the lovely prospect smiled; <br />Then, Mary! 'mid my lightsome glee <br />I heaved the painless sigh for thee. <br /> <br />II. <br />And when, as tossed on waves of woe, <br />My harassed heart was doomed to know <br />The frantic burst, the outrage keen, <br />And the slow pang that gnaws unseen; <br />Then shipwrecked on life's stormy sea, <br />I heaved an anguish'd sigh for thee! <br /> <br />III. <br />But soon reflection's power imprest <br />A stiller sadness on my breast; <br />And sickly hope with waning eye <br />Was well content to droop and die: <br />I yielded to the stern decree, <br />Yet heaved a languid sigh for thee! <br /> <br />IV. <br />And tho' in distant climes to roam, <br />A wanderer from my native home, <br />I feign would soothe the sense of care <br />And lull to sleep the joys, that were! <br />Thy image may not banished be-- <br />Still, Mary! still I sigh for thee.<br /><br />Samuel Taylor Coleridge<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-sigh-2/
