Songs

On Parting

by Issac Nathan

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Text

On Parting
English source: George Gordon, Lord Byron

The kiss, dear maid! thy lip has left
Shall never part from mine,
Till happier hours restore the gift
Untainted back to thine.

Thy parting glance, which fondly beams,
An equal love may see:
The tear that from thine eyelid streams
Can weep no change in me.

I ask no pledge to make me blest
In gazing when alone;
Nor one memorial for a breast,
Whose thoughts are all thine own.

Nor need I write—to tell the tale
My pen were doubly weak:
Oh! what can idle words avail,
Unless the heart could speak?

By day or night, in weal or woe,
That heart, no longer free,
Must bear the love it cannot show,
And silent ache for thee.

Composer

Issac Nathan

Isaac Nathan was an English composer, musicologist, journalist and self-publicist, who ended an eventful career by becoming the "father of Australian music".

Poet

George Gordon, Lord Byron

George Gordon Byron (later Noel), 6th Baron Byron, FRS , commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was an English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's…

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