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A NOCTURNE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: On a night of sorrow I cried aloud her name
Last Line: Than your own heart's gift of never-changing love.
Alternate Author Name(s): Olkyrn, Iris
Subject(s): Grief


ON a night of sorrow I cried aloud her name.
God, who heard, said: 'Hasten,' and in my dream she came.
She stood; I saw her clearly by the moon's white flame;
Her eyes were sweet as ever; her voice was yet the same.

No illumining radiance lit her girlish brow --
As in life I loved her, I beheld her now;
I smiled in joy to greet her; nor did I think it strange
That death had wrought no change.

She bore with her no blossoms unknown to earthly land,
No tall white flowers of paradise, stately and grand;
There were violets on her breast -- blue violets --
And a red rose in her hand.

'How have you gathered?' I asked my gentle one,
'In that unchanging region of never-ceasing sun,
Where the March winds blow never, and no rain-shower ever wets
Those little violets?'

'I have had them long,' she said: 'I have loved them much,
They were the last flowers given my living hands to touch,
And in the fevered night of pain before my death,
Sweet was the fragrance of their breath.'

'But surely you have gathered in the celestial land
That other flower which lovingly is kept in your hand?
For there is not growing here on the mountain in the snows
Any such crimson rose.'

With looks of tenderest reproach my words were met.
'Dear, I have remembered! Dear, can you forget?
Seaward north of Derry, it fed on sun and dew;
It was a gift from you.'

And I shall always treasure it as priceless in worth,
God has made nothing fairer than the little flowers of earth,
As He has no more to give in His heaven above
Than your own heart's gift of never-changing love.





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