Broken Vows [poem by Philip Durham Lorimer]

[Editor: This poem by Philip Durham Lorimer was published in Songs and Verses by Philip Durham Lorimer: An Australian Bush Poet, 1901.]

Broken Vows

Written by request for a young gentleman

Since thy vows to me are broken,
And a cloud is passing o’er
The life which thou didst cherish once,
The life I know no more.

’Tis darkness now to be with thee,
Life’s brightness has all flown.
Go, with the legions of thy sex,
And leave me here alone !

Alone ! ah, yes, alone ! to feel
Some vow unbroken, may
Like one bright stream of lightning, break
The darkness of to-day.

Alone ’tis better far to be
Than fondled in thine arms ;
A poison rankles in thy breast.
Though hidden by thy charms.

’Tis true another claims thy heart,
And brings thee present joy ;
But can those raptures of the Past
Its memory destroy ?

I’ll leave thee in his treach’rous arms.
Unmanly it may be,
But promise thee that I forgive
Thy strange inconstancy.

Thy tears ! why, let them fall like rain.
Such faithless tears are thine :
But when thou need’st another’s tears,
Thou must not ask for mine !

Queensland, 1868.

Source:
E. A. Petherick (editor). Songs and Verses by Philip Durham Lorimer: An Australian Bush Poet, William Clowes and Sons, London, 1901, pages 71-72