XLII.
TO AGNES GRACE.
I
O fair the blossom on the bough
That falls when Eve is falling:
And fair the golden Autumn fruit
The flowers of Spring recalling!
II
And come, fair Child, and smile on me
With full set eyes and willing;
The promise of thy nursery song
From rosy lips fulfilling.
III
No prize-crown'd hour of Greece was e'er
To youthful victor dearer,
Than when the Child first feels her words
Gain a delighted hearer.
IV
My answering smiles confess thy power:
Thy power first felt delights thee:
To prove that with the elder world
Some sympathy unites thee.
V
—I smile for what she blindly knows;
For what she knows not sighing:
—For Time's tyrannic march, the Child
From Childhood disallying.
VI
O stern irrevoluble march!
O Sarsar wind pervading!
The gracious flowers before thee fade,
Unconscious of their fading!
VII
—O fair the blossom on the bough
With twilight Childhood falling:—
And fair the golden Autumn fruit
The bloom of youth recalling!
VIII
Between our childhood and our age
The heats of summer tremble:
Defeated Love and Hopes unheard
Upon the waste assemble.
IX
And thoughts of earlier promise flown
Or still delaying sadden:—
O long the flower must fade, before
The fruit our eyes may gladden.
X
Yet, dear one, in thy smiles we see
The strength that will sustain thee,
Till Childhood's happy peace once more
And blithesomeness regain thee.
XI
—We promise kisses, soon repaid,
Within our arms to win thee:
We gaze on azure eyes, that tell
The depths of Heaven within thee.
XII
We bless thee, darling, as thou art,
Our foolish fancy stilling:—
The loving promise of thy youth
We trust to Love's fulfilling.
XIII
We bless the smiles of rising day
That shame our blind regretting:
We know each grace that gilds the dawn
Will glorify the setting.
