Page:Landon in The New Monthly 1831.pdf/5



night!—what a sudden shadow Has fallen upon the air, I look not around the chamber, I know he is not there. Sweetness has left the music, And gladness left the light; My cheek has lost its colour, How could he say, Good night! And why should he take with him The happiness he brought? Alas! such fleeting pleasure Is all too dearly bought: If thus, my heart stop beating, My spirits lose their tone, And a gloom, like night, surround me, The moment he is gone. Like the false fruit of the lotos, Love alters every taste:— We loathe the life we're leading, The spot where we are plac'd. We live upon to-morrow, Or, we dream the past again; But what avails that knowledge? It ever comes in vain.