Poem by Thomas Moore

From “Irish Melodies”. 75. As Slow Our Ship

          AS slow our ship her foamy track
                Against the wind was cleaving,
          Her trembling pennant still look’d back
                To that dear isle ’twas leaving.
          So loath we part from all we love,
                From all the links that bind us;
          So turn our hearts as on we rove,
                To those we’ve left behind us.

          When, round the bowl, of vanish’d years
                We talk, with joyous seeming, —
          With smiles that might as well be tears,
                So faint, so sad their beaming;
          While memory brings us back again
                Each early tie that twined us,
          Oh, sweet’s the cup that circles then
                To those we’ve left behind us.

          And when, in other climes, we meet
                Some isle, or vale enhanting,
          Where all looks flowery, wild, and sweet,
                And nought but love is wanting;
          We think how great had been our bliss,
                If Heaven had but assign’d us
          To live and die in scenes like this,
                With some we’ve left behind us!

          As travellers oft look back at eve,
                When eastward darkly going,
          To gaze upon that light they leave
                Still faint behind them glowing —
          So, when the close of pleasure’s day
                To gloom hath near consign’d us,
          We turn to catch one fading ray
                Of joy that’s left beind us.

1. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 52
2. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 54
3. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 38
4. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 17
5. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 56

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