Farewell

“ The kiss, the handkerchief, the siren and the bell,
A smile or two, and then the loneliness.
Farewell. And if we never speak again,
Let there remain a little souvenir,
Airy as a handkerchief, simpler than a card,
Deceptive, like the scent of gilt veneer.
And if I saw what others have not seen,
So much the better, swallow, homeward on the wing:
You showed me South, where hidden lies your nest;
Your fate it is to fly, my fate to sing.
Farewell. And if this was indeed the end,
So much the worse for hope whose life is gone;
For if we wish to meet, then never part. ”

“ The light'ning, the fierce wind, and trampling waves.
Farewell, farewell the Heart that lives alone,
Hous'd in a dream, at distance from the Kind!
Such happiness, wherever it be known,
Is to be pitied; for 'tis surely blind.
But welcome fortitude, and patient chear,
And frequent sights of what is to be born!
Such sights, or worse, as are before me here.—
Not without hope we suffer and we mourn. ”

“ Farewell deare flowers, sweetly your time ye spent,
Fit, while ye liv'd, for smell or ornament,
And after death for cures.
I follow straight without complaints or grief,
Since if my sent be good, I care not, if
It be as short as yours. ”

“ It sounded like a welcome already overshadowed with the coming farewell. As in all sweetest music, a tinge of sadness was in every note. Nor do we know how much of the pleasures even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows. ”

“ Where dream like time pass'd by,
I bid farewell to each, to all—
But bid it not to thee—
Oh! surely even in the tomb
Some sign of love may be.
When thou art mourning o'er my grave,
My spirit may be near ”

“ There is no welcome unaccompanied by the shadow of farewell. There is no leaping of the heart to meet sunshine and fair weather without its corresponding faintness of shrinking from the clouds and darkness certain to follow. ”

“ Farewell! Farewell! the voice you hear Has left its last soft tone with you; Its next must join the seaward cheer, And shout among the shouting crew.
The accents which I scarce could form Beneath your frown's controlling check, Must give the word, above the storm, To cut the mast and clear the wreck.
The timid eye I dared not raise, The hand that shook when pressed to thine, Must point the guns upon the chase, Must bid the deadly cutlass shine.
To all I love, or hope, or fear, Honour or own, a long adieu! To all that life has soft and dear, Farewell! save memory of you! ”

“ And now, reader, we have run through all the ten categories of my condition as it stood about 1816-17, up to the middle of which latter year I judge myself to have been a happy man, and the elements of that happiness I have endeavoured to place before you in the above sketch of the interior of a scholar’s library, in a cottage among the mountains, on a stormy winter evening.
But now, farewell—a long farewell—to happiness, winter or summer! Farewell to smiles and laughter! Farewell to peace of mind! Farewell to hope and to tranquil dreams, and to the blessed consolations of sleep. ”

“ And where never a snowdrop blooms,
Nor wild becks talk as they go
Of tender hope we had known,
Nor mosses of memory grow
All over the wayside stone.
III. Farewell, farewell, and farewell,
As voice of a lover's sigh
In the wind let yon willow wave
'Farewell, farewell, and farewell.'
The sparkling frost-stars brave
On thy shrouded bosom lie;
Thou art gone apart to dwell,
But I fain would have said good-bye.
For love of thee in thy grave
I have lived a better man,
O my Mary Anne,
My Mary Anne.
Mrs. Thorpe (aside) . O hearts! why, what a song! ”

“ When the lash of the driver is sounding,
'Way down—way down upon old Georgia's shore,
I will trust in my Saviour,
His grace I will implore—
Farewell—we'll meet on earth no more.
Fare-you-well, my dear mother,
I leave you now behind;
Farewell; we'll meet on earth no more. ”

“ Now we must bid one another forever farewell, my friend, my beloved, my own! Yes, it must be forever! Ah, how at this moment I could embrace you! Goodbye, dear friend--goodbye, goodbye! May you ever rest well and happy! To the end I shall keep you in my prayers. How my heart is aching under its load of sorrow! ”

“ Farewell to music, and the sound of song; to the marriage of instruments, where the concord of soft and harsh unites in sweet harmony, and gives wings to the panting listeners, whereby to climb heaven, and learn the hidden pleasures of the eternals!—Farewell to the well-trod stage; a truer tragedy is enacted on the world's ample scene, that puts to shame mimic grief: to high-bred comedy, and the low buffoon, farewell!—Man may laugh no more. ”

“ But dreams must fade ofttimes before the dawn, and erelong they must say farewell, those foolish young lovers, who found the world so entirely made for them alone. And yet not farewell, but au revoir—au revoir until the morrow, with, perchance, Father Ambrose's approval, if not his blessing, on their flight from troubles and shadows, suspicions and jealousies. ”

“ Farewell, goodness that is ignorant of its own existence, mysterious virtue, joy of men! Farewell to the most adorable of the images that nature has ever thrown—for some unknown reasons—on the face of this deceptive world! ”

“ Adieu, adieu, adieu, farewell, farewell, farewell, my dearest brother in the Lord, till we meet again. Though we must part here, and be separated by men, I hope that we shall meet again where men can part us no more. ”

“ Sir, this paper is to bid you a hearty farewell for ever—and to bring my humble thanks for all your noble favours; and I hope that you will believe a dying man. I have as much love as honour for you; and I will bend my feeble knees to the God of Heaven that you, my dear lady and your children, and their children, may be blest with external and eternal happiness; and that the same blessing may fall upon my lady Sunderland and her relations. ”

“ If thou dost bid thy friend farewell,
But for one night though that farewell may be,
Press thou his hand in thine.
How canst thou tell how far from thee
Fate or caprice may lead his steps ere that to-morrow comes?
Men have been known to lightly turn the corner of a street,
And days have grown to months, and months to lagging years,
Ere they have looked in loving eyes again. ”

“ Then I wrote a few cordial lines to my friend the pastor. As I added the farewell message to his dear daughters, the sorrowful face of the eldest again appeared before me in the most vivid hues, and her earnest eyes seemed to say: "You do not know what happiness you are losing." ”

“ If I am parted dear from thee.
Farewell! Farewell! I give thee up.
[Pg 50] The dregs of life I now must sup.
But loving thee, I can forgive.
Without thy love, I cannot live.
Alone, forsaken, and bereft,
There’s naught on earth for me now left.
Farewell! farewell! our past is dead,
All happiness from me hath fled.
The dreary future must be met;
I find that I can not forget.
I think that thou wilt love me dear,
When I am dead, and o’er my bier
Thou bendest down to look at me.
My heart will then from grief be free.
[Pg 51]
FAREWELL.
My lover of the past, farewell! ”

“ Farewell! if ever fondest prayer
⁠For other's weal availed on high,
Mine will not all be lost in air,
⁠But waft thy name beyond the sky,
'Twere vain to speak, to weep, to sigh:
⁠Oh! more than tears of blood can tell,
When wrung from guilt's expiring eye,
⁠Are in that word—Farewell!—Farewell! ”

“ Where thy sainted dust is sleeping,
Let us share a kindred rest.
Friends! our span of life is fleeting,
Hark! the harps of angels swell,
Think of that eternal meeting,
Where no voice shall say farewell. ”

“ Later and long will be cherished whatever may be sad of these mingled feelings that accompany this farewell,—later when night after night we shall miss from the play-bill the old familiar name, and feel that one source of elevated delight is lost to us forever. ”

“ To your lover say farewell.
To the only one you love—
He who in your heart doth dwell.
Drafted in the warrior band,
Far away he’ll have to serve.
May be, in the living land,
You will see his face no more. ”

“ On all sides were poor fellows seen taking farewell—a last farewell it proved to many—of their wives and scarcely-conscious little ones; and many a man started from the ranks to give one more kiss to the pale cheek he might never press again, or to the ruddy mouths of their children; and then waving his hand with a backward glance, strode manfully and mournfully on, with his shouldered musket. ”

“ They will be among the last to bid you an affectionate adieu when the farewell time draws near, the time when you bid good-bye—at least for a few ages—to the universe of your origin, when you enseraphim for transit to the receiving worlds of the minor sector of the superuniverse. ”

“ Farewell hath thine eyes with its weeping made dim;
But think, though Creation henceforth may seem empty,
Thou canst not be severed a moment from HIM.
Oft, oft shall the prayer unto God be ascending,
Though far in the wilderness from thee we dwell,
That into thine heart He may daily be sending
Joys, comforts, and blessings which tongue cannot tell:
That long be thy life, and all-fragrant that life be,
And if more affliction thy bliss should bedim. ”

“ And yet—O heart be still!
I find that love, and pity
Lie deep within my heart.
I cannot, cannot hate thee—
Thou art of life a part.
Farewell! Farewell! ’Tis better
For both; that we are free.
For life, when trust hath left us
Is naught but misery. ”

“ There ever rises on my thought
A dream of sadness:
Yet gazing upon guileless faces,
Sunned by the light of laughing eyes,
I recreant were to own no traces
Of social ties.
Even I may borrow from another
The smile I fain would call my own,
Striving, with childish art, to smother
The care unknown.
Farewell! Farewell!—All good attend thee—
At home, abroad—on land, or sea—
That Heaven may evermore befriend thee,
My prayer shall be! ”

“ The honest words, "Good-bye!"
"Adieu! adieu!" may greet the ear,
In the guise of courtly speech: But when we leave the kind and dear,
'Tis not what the soul would teach. Whene'er we grasp the hands of those
We would have forever nigh, The flame of Friendship bursts and glows
In the warm, frank words, "Good-bye."
The mother, sending forth her child
To meet with cares and strife, Breathes through her tears her doubts and fears
For the loved one's future life. No cold "adieu," no "farewell," lives
Within her choking sigh, But the deepest sob of anguish gives,
"God bless thee, boy! ”

“ Farewell, my dear child, and pray for me, and I shall for you and all your friends, that we may merrily meet in heaven. ”

“ Ah! the tender and solemn farewell beside the bed of death is, indeed, a consolation to the survivor! There is nothing so soothing as to know that the last earthly wish has been confided to your fulfilment, the last expressions of earthly affection have been your own. ”

“ On the morning of a farewell we fluctuate sharply between the very distant and the close and homely: and even in memory the fluctuation occurs, the grander scene casting us back on the modestly nestling, and that, when it has refreshed us, conjuring imagination to embrace the splendour and wonder. ”

“ FAREWELL TO FIFTY-FIVE.
Farewell, farewell, old Fifty-five! to thee,
This circling ball no longer homage yields;
Thy record’s closed, and frail humanity
Stands trembling ’neath the rod that conscience wields. ”

“ If only now, at least, before death--for death after all is a sacred thing, after all it elevates any being--if any kind, sad, friendly voice would sing over me a farewell song of my own sorrow, I could, perhaps, be resigned to it. ”

“ Spirit, that wander'd o'er the soft harp's strings,
Farewell! awhile I wake me from thy dream;
Fondly farewell, adored one! to thee.——
Rose of my soul! beside the social hearth
Was thy first springing up ”

“ So farewell to the little good you bear me. Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness! ”

“ Farewell, my friends! farewell, my foes! My peace with these, my love with those: The bursting tears my heart declare— Farewell, the bonie banks of Ayr! ”

“ While his fair eyes, that swam with undropt tears
Did glitter in the yellow moon-beam! Well!—
It is a father's tale: But if that Heaven
Should give me life, his childhood shall grow up
Familiar with these songs, that with the night
He may associate joy! Once more farewell,
Sweet Nightingale! Once more, my friends! farewell. ”

“ Adieux are spoken, the beautiful bay sparkles in the sunlight, and we bid a farewell to the land we may never see again. My own personal regrets are few, for I have suffered during the entire sojourn from a depression very unlike my normal condition. I hope this benighted race may yet be brought from darkness into light and that one common brotherhood may be established, and love divine shine over all. ”

“ On my fav’rite place of rest!
“Cease thine aching, heaving heart!
Gently, gently, let me die!
Let me give my last farewell,
Free from death’s deep agony.
“Sons and daughters! all farewell!
Let the last sweet kiss be given;
Hear your mother’s dying charge—
Meet me, meet me—all, in Heaven!”
“Kiss me, husband! yet once more!
Once again! there, that will do;
O! ’tis sweet to think I take
But a short farewell of you.
“I am going—all is dark—
Husband! ’tis not hard to die;
O! what heavenly light I see!
Glory! glory! victory!”
February 23, 1841.
[Pg 271]
SMILING, THOUGH SAD.
O! ”

“ Nay then, farewell! I have touch'd the highest point of all my greatness, And from that full meridian of my glory I haste now to my setting. I shall fall Like a bright exhalation in the evening, And no man see me more. ”

“ Therefore, for me farewell;
Farewell for me the soft,
The balmy influences of night and sleep,
The satisfaction of achievement done,
The restorative pulsing of the blood
That changes all and changes e’en the soul—
And natural functions, moving as they should,
The sweet good-nights, the sweet delusive dreams
That lull us out of old things into new.
But welcome Fact, and Fact’s best brother, Work ”

“ Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
⁠To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!
He prayeth well who loveth well
⁠Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best who loveth best
⁠All things, both great and small:
For the dear God who loveth us,
⁠He made and loveth all. ”

“ So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear,
Farewell remorse! ”