University of Virginia Library

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281

ANTE DIEM

“Ossek not with untimely art
To ope the bud before it blows,
Bewitching from the folded heart
Reluctant petals of the rose!
“Too quickly cherished, quickly dear,
She came, the graceful child and gay,—
O leave her in her early year
Till April crimson into May!
“The golden sun shall glance and go,
Shall rest and tremble in her hair;
Beside her cheek shall love to blow
The soft and kindly English air;—
“O leave her glad with such caress,
In such embraces clasped and free,
Nor teach thy hasty heart to guess
The woman and the love to be.”
Thus with myself my thoughts complain,
And so by night shall I be wise,
Till on my heart arise again
Her open and illumined eyes.
282

A moment then the past prevails
And in the man is manhood strong,
Then from the bruisèd soul exhales
The sweet and quivering flame of song.
Oh if indeed with time and tide
Too fast the changeful seasons flow,
And loving life from life divide
And shape and sunder as they go,—
Yet with what airy bonds I may
Her flying soul shall I retain,
And sometimes, dreaming in the day,
Shall see her, as she smiled, again:—
A girlish joy shall haunt the spot,
A presence shall illume the shade,
And unembraced and unforgot
Shall rise the vision of a maid.
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