Love

Though All Fair Was That Bosom

by Henry Scott Riddell born 1798; living 1855–57

From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, vol. 4 (1855–57)

Love

Though all fair was that bosom, heaving white,
While hung this fond spirit o'er thee;
And though that eye, with beauty's light,
Still bedimm'd every eye before thee;
Oh! charms there were still more divine,
When woke that melting voice of thine,
The charms that caught this soul of mine,
And taught it to adore thee.

Then died the woes of the heart away
With the thoughts of joys departed;
For my soul seem'd but to live in thy lay,
While it told of the faithful-hearted.
Methought how sweet it were to be
Far in some wild green glen with thee;
From all of life and of longing free,
Save what pure love imparted.

Oh! I could stray where the drops of dew
Never fell on the desert round me,
And dwell where the fair flowers never grew
If the hymns of thy voice still found me.
Thy smile itself could the soul invest
With all that here makes mortals bless'd;
While every thought thy lips express'd
In deeper love still bound me.

MLA

Riddell, Henry Scott. “Though All Fair Was That Bosom.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/riddell/16/.

Chicago

Riddell, Henry Scott. “Though All Fair Was That Bosom.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/riddell/16/.

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