The Fall of the Leaf And Other Poems. By Charles Bucke ... Fourth Edition |
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 | The Fall of the Leaf |  |
26
V.
The empire heard how swift their minutes flewIn every mental exercise! and you—
You know—you feel—the honest truth I speak!
Alas the time!—a tear bedews my cheek,
To think how soon their pleasures flew away,
Like the short sunshine of an April day.
All Britons hail'd, with eagerness, the hour,
So grateful to their happiness and power,
When, from their mutual tenderness, might spring
Their country's bulwark—in a future king.
Hope sate in ev'ry eye! but in the bloom
Of love matured, their melancholy doom
Fate seal'd! while Death the patient dove
Struck in the fruitage of her wedded love!
| The Fall of the Leaf | |