The Hydraulic Ram

In the hall grounds, by evening-gloom conceal'd,
He heard the solitary water-ram
Beat sadly in the little wood-girt field,
So dear to both! ' Ah! wretched that I am!'
He said, c and traitor to my love and her's!
Why did I vent those words of wrath and spleen,
That changed her cheek, and flush'd her gentle mien?
When will they yield her back, those jealous firs,
Into whose shelter two days since she fled
From my capricious anger, phantom-fed?
When will her sire his interdict unsay?
Or must I learn a lonely lot to bear,
As this imprison'd engine, night and day,
Plies its dull pulses in the darkness there?'