Sixty-Five Sonnets With Prefatory Remarks on the Accordance of the Sonnet with the Powers of the English Language: Also, A Few Miscellaneous Poems [by Thomas Doubleday] |
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 | Sixty-Five Sonnets |  |
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XXIV.
Where yonder lilacs wanton with the air,And no autumnal blasts have blown to fade,
If flowers thou seek'st a festive wreath to braid,
Bend thy search thither, thou wilt find them there;
Not in the arches of the forest, where
The branching oaks extend unmoving shade;
Of spring's minuter verdure disarray'd
The earth beyond their twisted roots is bare;
Save where perchance the hop, with tendril curl'd,
Or ivy, string'd, may seek and twine around
Some stems amidst the forest chiefs that tower:—
So, in the mightier landscape of the world,
The flowers of joy and love are seldom found
At the stern feet of knowledge or of power.
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