 | Fantasy and Passion |  |
22
IMMORTELLES.
Just as when summer laughed they linger yet,
Here in my chamber while the world is cold,
Their pale-gold brittle petals primly set
About dry brittle hearts of deeper gold.
Here in my chamber while the world is cold,
Their pale-gold brittle petals primly set
About dry brittle hearts of deeper gold.
Is it but fancy that an aching need
Lives in the wan inanimate looks they lift,
And that Tithonus-like they dumbly plead
The awful goddess to revoke her gift?
Lives in the wan inanimate looks they lift,
And that Tithonus-like they dumbly plead
The awful goddess to revoke her gift?
Yes, if I read their joyless calm aright,
Mere immortality can ill repay
This sluggish veto on corruption's blight,
This dull and charmless challenge to decay!
Mere immortality can ill repay
This sluggish veto on corruption's blight,
This dull and charmless challenge to decay!
For surely these are flowers that well might sleep
Near Stygian waves and shiver in the breath
Of long disconsolate breezes when they sweep
Out from the dreamy meadowlands of death!
Near Stygian waves and shiver in the breath
Of long disconsolate breezes when they sweep
Out from the dreamy meadowlands of death!
Ah! where in this white urn they dimly smile,
Full oft, I doubt not, each poor bloom has sighed
To have been some odorous radiance that erewhile
Divinely was a rose, although it died!
Full oft, I doubt not, each poor bloom has sighed
To have been some odorous radiance that erewhile
Divinely was a rose, although it died!
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