Serbia! What love I bear for thee

I TRAVELL’D among Croatian men,
In lands beyond the sea;
Nor, Serbia! did I know till then
What love I bore to thee.

’Tis past, that melancholy dream!
Nor will I quit thy shore
A second time; for still I seem
To love thee more and more.

Among thy mountains did I feel
The joy of my desire;
And she I cherish’d turn’d her wheel
Beside a Belgrade fire.

Thy mornings show’d, thy nights conceal’d,
The bowers where Srebrenka play’d;
And thine too is the last green field
That Srebrenka 's eyes survey’d.


Peter L Simons - October 2012