Since all thy vows, false maid

Francis George Scott

Since all thy vows, false maid,

Are blown to air,

And my poor heart betray'd

To sad despair,

Into some wilderness,

My grief I will express

And thy hardheartedness,

O cruel Fair!

Have I not grav'n our love

On ev'ry tree

In yonder spreading grove,

Though false thou be?

Was not a solemn oath

Plighted betwixt us both,

Thou thy faith, I my troth,

Constant to be?

Some gloomy place I'll find,

Some doleful shade

Where neither sun nor wind

E'er entrance had:

Into that hollow cave,

There will I sigh and rave,

Because thou dost behave

So faithlessly.

I'll have no funeral fire,

Nor tears for me,

No grave do I desire,

No obsequie;

The courteous redbreast, he,

With leaves will cover me

And sing my elegy

With doleful voice.

And when a ghost I am,

I'll visit thee:

O thou deceitful dame,

Whose cruelty

Has kill'd the kindest heart

That e'er felt Cupid's dart,

And never can desert

From loving thee.