 | The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes |  |
IN T. G. A.'S ALBUM
FEBRUARY 22, 1874
Who that can pluck the flower will choose the weed,Leave the sweet rose and gather blooms less fair?
And who my homely verse will stay to read
Straying enchanted through this bright parterre
When morning's herald lifts his purple bell
And spring's young violet woos the wanderer's eye?
Nay! let me seek the fallen leaves that tell
Of beggared winter's footstep drawing nigh
There shall my shred of song enshrouded lie,
A leaf that dropped in memory's flowery dell;
The breath of friendship stirred it and it fell
Tinged with the loving hue of autumn's fond farewell!
| The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes | |