I KNOW thee not, bright creature, ne'er shall know;
Thy course and mine lie far and far away;
Yet heaven this once has given me to survey
Those charms that seldom may be seen below.
We part as soon as met, but where I go
Thy form shall ever be; upon thy way
Shall heaven, for thou art heaven's, its mildest ray
Shed ever bright; yet tho' disease and woe
Thy cheek consume not, Time will have his prey,
And I may meet and know thee not again.
But what lives in the mind shall not decay.
And thus shall mine thy form divine retain,
In all the freshness of youth's dawning day,
When thou may'st be no more, and earth laments in vain.