Goodbye

“ The supreme moment had come when words no longer count, and when the eyes try to fill themselves with one last gaze upon those whom one is leaving—goodbye to family, to love, to self, to the joy of the living—all one’s soul goes out in this last gaze. ”

“ Goodbye, ladies, and thank you kindly for all you’ve done for us.”
Such are the parting words, rough it may be, but coming from the heart, and therefore far more valuable than the elegant insincerity of more polished partings. But as character is shown in every action of life, we may easily detect the [164] difference of nature even in their mode of saying goodbye. One comes forward with frank smile, and hand extended, his whole soul beaming from his honest eyes ”

“ With laughter, when, after the wooer had won.
⁠Love flew with a whispered goodbye.
I wish we could die as the birds die,
⁠To fly and to fall when our beauty was best:
No trammels of time on the years of our face ”

“ 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. ”

“ They have been so untrue;
But more I loathe the dearer dream,
The one that dwelt with you!
Farewell to one, farewell to all,
Both song and love are o'er;
The essence of their life is past,
For they deceive no more! ”

“ In anguish at my last farewell,
Oh! who would dream that joy could dwell,
To make that moment bright?
Yet be my judge, each heart! and say,
Which then could most my bosom sway,
Affliction, or delight? ”

“ Farewell!—a word that human lips bestow
On all that human hearts delight to know:
On summer skies, and scenes that change as fast;
On ocean calms, and faith as fit to last;
On Life, from Love's own arms, that breaks away ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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! ”

“ Thou'lt find her yet in Heaven!
GO, THEN—'TIS VAIN. (SICILIAN AIR.) Go, then—'tis vain to hover
Thus round a hope that's dead;
At length my dream is over;
'Twas sweet—'twas false—'tis fled!
Farewell! since naught it moves thee,
Such truth as mine to see—
Some one, who far less loves thee,
Perhaps more blest will be.
Farewell, sweet eyes, whose brightness
New life around me shed;
Farewell, false heart, whose lightness
Now leaves me death instead.
Go, now, those charms surrender
To some new lover's sigh—
One who, tho' far less tender,
May be more blest than I. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ And grow a home for only thee;
Nor feared but thy love likewise grew,
Like mine, each day, more tried, more true.
The fault was grave! I might have known,
What far too soon, alas! I learned,—
The heart can bind itself alone,
And faith may oft be unreturned.
Self-swayed our feelings ebb and swell.
Thou lov’st no more. Farewell! Farewell! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ THE TWILIGHT OF LOVE Adieu! and the sun goes awearily down, The mist creeps up o’er the sleepy town, The white sails bend to the shuddering mere, And the reapers have reaped, and the night is here. Adieu! and the years are a broken song, The right grows weak in the strife with wrong, The lilies of love have a crimson stain, And the old days never will come again. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ WE are always saying
"Good-bye, good-bye!"
In work, in playing,
In gloom, in gaying:
At many a stage
Of pilgrimage
From youth to age
We say, "Good-bye,
Good-bye!"
We are undiscerning
Which go to sigh,
Which will be yearning
For soon returning;
And which no more
Will dark our door,
Or tread our shore,
But go to die,
To die.
Some come from roaming
With joy again ”

“ 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! ”

“ And now these sketches are finished, and there is nothing left but to take farewell. It is always painful to say good-bye, whether to friends or places.
Life is a curious drama, and the scenes change very quickly. Accident, destiny, fate (call it what you like) sends us to some place; we stay there a few days, or weeks, or years; we make friends, we are on the most intimate terms with them; something calls us away; we never return to the well-known spot, and the friends there pass out of our lives—place and friends alike are but a memory. ”

“ Adieu
Adieu, Sons and Daughters of the first pair of mortals!
Adieu, City—you know not of celestial joy rippling in tune with nature!
Adieu, Fame—a sunbeam following the darkness of night!
Adieu, Gold—glittering dust of the earth, valueless in the land of Heaven!
Adieu, Mansions—you wall the sky, hide the moon and the stars! ”

“ 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. ”

“ Adieu, therefore, my dearest friend!—Be this your consolation, as it is mine, that in God's good time we shall meet in a blessed eternity, never more to part!—Once more, then, adieu!—and be happy!—Which a generous nature cannot be, unless—to its power—it makes others so too. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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! ”

“ I am putting in your grasp the only thing I love, I am stealing a march on Fate, boldly and desperately I commit this act, if the end is mutual love all will be right. I shall pray without ceasing till we meet again, good-bye, good-bye. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Was the next moment hidden on his bosom.
But there was happiness even in that farewell,
Affection and deep confidence,
Tenderness, hope—for Love lights Hope,—and tears,
Delicious tears! the heart's own dew. ”