Louisa Stuart Costello - The Adieu lyrics

We part, and thou art mine no more! I go through seas never sought before, Where stars unknown to our native skies Startle the mariner's watchful eyes. Our bark shall over the waters sweep, And rouse the children of the deep: Around us, 'midst the silvery spray, With glittering scales shall the dolphins play. When scarcely flutters the snowy sail, Gently waved by the whispering gale, I shall gaze in the ocean's liquid gla**, And mark the hidden treasures we pa**: The amber and coral groves that glow In the sparkling sunbeams that dart below, Whose lucid and spreading boughs between Countless flitting forms are seen. Oh! could I beneath the billows dive, And in that world of splendour live! Were there a cave for thee and me Beneath that bright and silent sea, Which waves conceal and rocks surround, Like that the Island loves found*. Strange and solemn was the hour That saw them reach that secret bower;— Some love-lorn seamaid's deep abode, Or palace of the ocean god. Long had Hoonga's inmost cells Echoed to the mournful tone Of the waves among the shells, And the winds that feebly moan: But never to music so sad, so sweet, As the vows they breathed in that lone retreat. But, ah! our bark glides swiftly on, And my vision of that cave is gone,