 | The Poetical Works of John Payne |  |
A SONG OF WILLOW.
LOVE and Life have had their day,
Long ago;
Hope and Faith have fled for aye,
With the roses and the May;
This is but an idle show:
Come away!
Long ago;
Hope and Faith have fled for aye,
With the roses and the May;
This is but an idle show:
Come away!
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Seekest thou for flowers of June,
Roses red?
Listenest for the linnet's tune?
Here the night-fowl wails the moon;
Here are lilies of the dead,
Tear-bestrewn.
Roses red?
Listenest for the linnet's tune?
Here the night-fowl wails the moon;
Here are lilies of the dead,
Tear-bestrewn.
Thinkest Love will come again,
Fresh and sweet,
With the apple-blossoms' rain?
Many a day dead Love has lain,
Folded in the winding-sheet.
Hope is vain.
Fresh and sweet,
With the apple-blossoms' rain?
Many a day dead Love has lain,
Folded in the winding-sheet.
Hope is vain.
See, Death beckons from the gloom;
(Come away!)
Life is wasted from its room,
Love is faded from its bloom;
Come and shelter in the gray
Of the tomb.
(Come away!)
Life is wasted from its room,
Love is faded from its bloom;
Come and shelter in the gray
Of the tomb.
Come away! The bed is laid,
Soft and deep;
In the blossomed lindens' shade,
Underneath the moon-pale glade,
In the quiet shalt thou sleep,
Unaffrayed.
Soft and deep;
In the blossomed lindens' shade,
Underneath the moon-pale glade,
In the quiet shalt thou sleep,
Unaffrayed.
Kiss thy love, ‘Farewell’, and say,
‘Joy and pain!’
In the shadow come thee lay
Of the night that hath no day,
Where sleep healeth heart and brain:
Come away!
‘Joy and pain!’
In the shadow come thee lay
Of the night that hath no day,
Where sleep healeth heart and brain:
Come away!
| The Poetical Works of John Payne | |