 | East and west : the discovery of America and other poems |  |
64
ON OPENING AN ALBUM.
Your flowers are dead:—the fair sweet flowers
You gave me in the days gone by.
Not all the cooling summer showers
Could save them. They were born to die.
You gave me in the days gone by.
Not all the cooling summer showers
Could save them. They were born to die.
These roses on their withered stem
Hang crushed and brown that bloomed so red.
How fragrant when you gathered them!
And still their perfume is not fled.
Hang crushed and brown that bloomed so red.
How fragrant when you gathered them!
And still their perfume is not fled.
No:—and the scented heliotrope,
Blue-eyed and pure as maiden's breath,
Dear token of our love and hope,
Lies faintly sweet though wan in death.
Blue-eyed and pure as maiden's breath,
Dear token of our love and hope,
Lies faintly sweet though wan in death.
So like the flowers we droop! Like these
The pink-veined hope of youth decays;
And maytimes from the apple trees
Snow down dead sweets upon the ways.
The pink-veined hope of youth decays;
And maytimes from the apple trees
Snow down dead sweets upon the ways.
Yet lingers in this vale of tears
Some fragrance death may not remove;
Yea, from a spirit crushed with years
One perfume sweet whose name is love.
Some fragrance death may not remove;
Yea, from a spirit crushed with years
One perfume sweet whose name is love.
65
So now to you, though far apart,
In song like scented leaf, I pray,
O press these verses to your heart
As you would me if I were they!
In song like scented leaf, I pray,
O press these verses to your heart
As you would me if I were they!
| East and west : the discovery of America and other poems | |