Even as a cherish'd daughter leaves her home Blushing and breathing sweets; her home, where, nurs'd With fond attendance every morn and eve, She grew and flourish'd, and put forth her charms In virgin purity; and to that home From the polluted commerce of the world, Returns with faded charms, forlorn and sad, And soil'd and dropping locks -- in such sad plight Send I your nurseling; breathing now no more Ambrosial sweets, nor lifting her proud stem, Rich with enamell'd flowers, to meet the gaze Of raptur'd florist, but return'd to lie Low in the earth; yet, when the genial Spring With new impulses thrills the swelling veins, The plant may bloom again -- not so the maid. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SHPEHERD'S HOUR by PAUL VERLAINE HYMN OF THE CITY by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT A MOTHER TO HER SICK CHILD by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES ROSE AYLMER by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR A CONSECRATION by JOHN MASEFIELD IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: PROEM by ALFRED TENNYSON |