The Poetry Corner

A Song. In Vain You Tell Your Parting Lover

By Matthew Prior

In vain you tell your parting lover You wish fair winds may waft him over Alas! what winds can happy prove That bear me far from what I love? Alas! what dangers on the main Can equal those that I sustain From slighted vows and cold disdain? Be gentle, and in pity choose To wish the wildest tempests loose, That thrown again upon the coast Where first my shipwreck'd heart was lost, I may once more repeat my pain, Once more in dying notes complain Of slighted vows and cold disdain.