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Poems

By Edward Quillinan. With a Memoir by William Johnston

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FIRST LOVE.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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156

FIRST LOVE.

When first I saw her by the bleak sea-shore,
Like the strong wave I felt my heart to leap:
It left me then and dwelt with me no more,
But lived with her, a dweller by the deep.
She was my muse while yet my life was May,
That soft serene, half melancholy girl!
Nature had form'd her of no vulgar clay,
Or if of dust, 'twas dust of ocean pearl.
Her cheek was colourless; grave Passion there
And smiling Innocence together strove;
With one white rose-bud in her jet-black hair,
She seem'd the spirit of unworldly love.
Even now I scarce can look upon a star,
A water-lily, or a passion-flower,
But with a sigh that wafts my memory far
Back unto her in youth's romantic hour.