Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems by the late Thomas Haynes Bayly; Edited by his Widow. With A Memoir of the Author. In Two Volumes |
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 | Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems |  |
56
II. OH! FOLLY CAUGHT ME, AS I SLEPT.
Oh! Folly caught me, as I slept,
Upon a lilac spray;
And spurned me, when his hand had swept
My golden down away.
Look at my bruised and broken wing,
'Twill bear me hence no more:
The flowers will bloom, the birds will sing,
But my summer-flight is o'er.
Alas! alas! how very brief
Is pleasure's brightest ray!
The sun, that warms the summer-leaf,
Will hasten its decay.
Upon a lilac spray;
And spurned me, when his hand had swept
My golden down away.
Look at my bruised and broken wing,
'Twill bear me hence no more:
The flowers will bloom, the birds will sing,
But my summer-flight is o'er.
Alas! alas! how very brief
Is pleasure's brightest ray!
The sun, that warms the summer-leaf,
Will hasten its decay.
I was the Insect-Queen, and oft
On me admirers gazed;
And, as in sport I soar'd aloft,
My beauty has been praised.
But other triflers will be found
To grace the garden now;
And other wings will hover round
My own sweet lilac bough.
Alas! alas! how very brief
Is pleasure's brightest ray!
The sun, that warms the summer-leaf,
Will hasten its decay.
On me admirers gazed;
And, as in sport I soar'd aloft,
My beauty has been praised.
But other triflers will be found
To grace the garden now;
And other wings will hover round
My own sweet lilac bough.
Alas! alas! how very brief
Is pleasure's brightest ray!
The sun, that warms the summer-leaf,
Will hasten its decay.
| Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems | |