Page:Poets of John Company.djvu/53



If thou wert by my side, my love,
 * How fast would evening fail

In green Bengala's palmy grove
 * Listening the nightingale!

If thou, my love, wert by my side.
 * My babies at my knee.

How gaily would our pinnace glide
 * O'er Gunga's mimic sea!

I miss thee at the dawning gray,
 * When, on our deck reclined,

In careless ease my limbs I lay
 * And woo the cooler wind.

I miss thee when by Gunga's stream
 * My twilight steps I guide.

But most beneath the lamp's pale beam
 * I miss thee from my side.

I spread my books, my pencil try
 * The lingering noon to cheer.

But miss thy kind approving eye,
 * Thy meek attentive ear.

But when of morn and eve the star
 * Beholds me on my knee,

I feel, though thou art distant far,
 * Thy prayers ascend for me.