University of Virginia Library

A GIRL'S SONG.

Unkind was he, the first who sang
The spring-time shamed, the flower's decay!
What woman yet without a pang
Could hear of Beauty's fleeting May?

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O Beauty! with me bide, and I
A maid will live, a maid will die.
Could I be always fair as now,
And hear, as now, the Poets sing
‘The long-lashed eyes, the lustrous brow,
The hand well worthy kiss and ring,’
Then, then some casual grace were all
That e'er from me on man should fall!
I sailed last night on Ina's stream:
Warm 'mid the wave my fingers lay;
The cold-lipped Naiad in my dream
Kissed them, and sighed, and slipped away—
Ah me! down life's descending tide
Best things, they say, the swiftliest glide.