“Farewell!” is much too sighful for
An age that has not time to sigh.
We say, “I'll see you later,” or
“Good-bye!”
“Fare well” meant long ago, before
It crept tear-spattered into song,
“Safe voyage!” “Pleasant journey!” or
“So long!”
But gone its cheery, old-time ring:
The poets made it rime with knell.
Joined, it became a dismal thing —
“Farewell!”
“Farewell!” Into the lover's soul
You see fate plunge the cruel iron.
All poets use it. It's the whole
Of Byron.
“I only feel — farewell!” said he;
And always tearful was the telling.
Lord Byron was eternally
Farewelling.
“Farewell!” A dismal word,‘ tis true.
( And why not tell the truth about it? )
But what on earth would poets do
Without it!