Explore "Written Extempore" by James Parkerson on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
On Receipt of a Letter, dated Sept. 26, 1806.
I've read your letter o'er and o'er again, / Happy to find you faithful do remain, / Besides forgiveness; though too much I fear, / I long have made you victim to despair.
You say two years with fervency I strove / To keep affection, constancy, and love; / But soon as crosses came upon my mind, / Was careless of you, and appear'd unkind.
I knew my home was neat, serene, and nice; / But, ah! that home I lost, allured by vice. / Soon as you fled, a different scene in view, / Gone all attention soon as I lost you.
The quick retort was always in my ears, / You've drown'd a virtuous wife in sorrow's tears. / Soon as I found all hopes to meet you fled, / I pray'd I might be number'd with the dead:
Oblivion's aid I oft invoked by drink, / I could not meditate nor dared to think. / You say it cost you tears to write to me; / But they'll disperse when you a convert see.
Long I've invoked a pardon from above, / To make me worthy of the wife I love: / Return, and till my days are at an end, / I'll prove protector, guardian, and a friend.
The converse delicate, the smile sincere, / Will check the sigh, and stop the rising tear; / Cheerful as formerly we'll pass our life, / A happy husband I, and you the wife.