Love's token-flowers :: :: University of Virginia Library

SPIDER-WORT.—Tradescantia.

“I esteem, but do not love you.”

Nay, leave me now, and let us part
With friendship's smiles at last;
Thou canst not win this worthless heart;
Its dreams of joy are past,
And never can I bend the knee
As Love's impassioned votary.

For I have loved, and still my brow
A trace of suffering wears;
My weary eyes are even now
Clouded with unshed tears:
Oh, why should aught so gentle be
The harbinger of misery?

Alas! to look in eyes that hold
Our all of earthly light,
And pray to meet a glance less cold—
A smile less calmly bright,

Yet ever meet their chilling beam,
Like moonlight o'er a frozen stream:

To hang upon the words that fall
From lips we love, in vain
Some hidden meaning to recall,
Some shadowy hope to gain,
To treasure every sigh and smile,
Yet find fresh food for grief the while:

Is not this misery? Yet this
Has worn my heart away;
Then tell not o'er thy hopes of bliss,
Mine bloomed but to decay,
Like wind-sown flowers in some deep cave
Their gloomy birthplace was their grave.

Methinks my life has been so drear,
That e'en should fortune give
All that would be on earth most dear,
I scarce could wish to live;
My heart has been so worn with sighs,
It could not breathe hope's melodies.