I'd Mourn the Hopes — Summary

Thomas MooreRomantic

I'd mourn the hopes that leave me, If thy smiles had left me too; I'd weep when friends deceive me, If thou wert, like them, untrue. But while I've thee before me, With heart so warm and eyes so bright, No clouds can linger o'er me, That smile turns them all to light.

'Tis not in fate to harm me, While fate leaves thy love to me: 'Tis not in joy to charm me, Unless joy be shared with thee. One minute's dream about thee Were worth a long, an endless year Of waking bliss without thee, My own love, my only dear!

And though the hope be gone, love, That long sparkled o'er our way, Oh! we shall journey on, love, More safely, without its ray. Far better lights shall win me, Along the path I've yet to roam -- The mind that burns within me, And pure smiles from thee at home.

Thus, when the lamp that lighted The traveller at first goes out, He feels awhile benighted, And looks round in fear and doubt. But soon, the prospect clearing, By cloudless starlight on he treads, And thinks no lamp so cheering As the light which Heaven sheds.

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The speaker refuses to mourn lost hopes or false friends, because the beloved’s warm heart and bright eyes turn all clouds to light. Her constancy shields him from despair. Even fate cannot harm him while her love remains, and no joy charms unless shared with her—a single minute dreaming of her outshines an endless year of waking bliss without her.

When a long-cherished hope fades, he does not falter. Instead, he trusts they will journey on more safely without its sparkle, guided now by his own burning mind and her pure smiles at home. The closing image of a traveller whose lamp goes out captures the mood: a moment of fear and doubt, then a clearing prospect under cloudless starlight. That light from heaven feels far more cheering than the lost earthly flame. The poem settles into a quiet, luminous confidence, rooted in love and inner resolve.

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