O between distress and pleasure
⁠Fond affection cannot be!
Wretched hearts in vain would treasure
⁠Friendship's joys when others flee.

Well I know thine eye would never
⁠Smile when mine grieved willingly;
Yet I know thine eye for ever
⁠Could not weep in sympathy.

Let us part; the time is over
⁠When I thought and felt like thee;
I will be an ocean rover,
⁠I will sail the desert sea.

Isles there are beyond its billow,
⁠Lands where woe may wander free;
And beloved, thy midnight pillow
⁠Will be soft unwatched by me.

Not on each returning morrow,
⁠When thy heart bounds ardently,
Needst thou then dissemble sorrow,
⁠Marking my despondency.