WRITTEN EARLIER.

Adieu to old England! adieu to my friends!
Though fortune and fame I pursue,
On thus looking around me, I cannot conceal,
How reluctant I bid them adieu!

My heart sinks within me, I sigh to the gale,
Thus slowly receding from shore,
While fancy still whispers some terrible tale,
A perhaps I may see it no more!

There all that I love, that I value, remain,
That only awakens my fears,
For will the same spot its dear inmates contain,
On the lapse of two lingering years?

They may smile in good fortune, or weep in distress,
I shall know not a word of their fate!
No pain can I soften, no sorrow redress!
I may come, when, alas! 'tis too late!

I can fly without fear to encounter the foe,
To my earliest wish I am true;
But I cannot unmov'd quit the friends that I love,
Or bid my dear country adieu!