 | [Poems by Wilde in] Richard Henry Wilde |  |
LINES WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM
Of Human Life from youth to age
This Book an apt sad emblem seems;
Hope promises to fill each page
With Friendship, Love or Pleasure's dreams.
This Book an apt sad emblem seems;
Hope promises to fill each page
With Friendship, Love or Pleasure's dreams.
Time wears apace—but day by day,
Hope's promises are all forgot
Some flowers are scattered by the way
But here's a blank—and there's a blot.
Hope's promises are all forgot
Some flowers are scattered by the way
But here's a blank—and there's a blot.
At length they fill—revolving years
Add their memorials, sad, or kind,
But some are sullied by our tears,
And some have left a stain behind!
Add their memorials, sad, or kind,
But some are sullied by our tears,
And some have left a stain behind!
And when in after times we turn
Our Memory or our pages o'er
'Tis but too oft alas! to mourn
O'er all we knew—and know no more!
Our Memory or our pages o'er
'Tis but too oft alas! to mourn
O'er all we knew—and know no more!
The hand that traced those lines is old—
The spirit that flashed here has fled—
And these recall warm hearts—now cold—
The changed—the absent—or the dead.
The spirit that flashed here has fled—
And these recall warm hearts—now cold—
The changed—the absent—or the dead.
Then why should we embalm the past
Since the fond record only tells
That Love and Hope and Life at last
Are broken charms and baffled spells?
Since the fond record only tells
That Love and Hope and Life at last
Are broken charms and baffled spells?
154
I do not know. ... They say that Eve
Some flowers of Eden chose to keep
O'er all she prized and left to grieve,
O'er all she loved and lost to weep!
Some flowers of Eden chose to keep
O'er all she prized and left to grieve,
O'er all she loved and lost to weep!
| [Poems by Wilde in] Richard Henry Wilde | |