O HEART'S fair innocence so quickly fled away! Bright dreams where joy and love and happiness abide, Illusions sweet that come but in the morn of day, Why do you never last until the even-tide? Why? ... As the hours speed, no dew-drop tears we find Most silvery and fresh upon the drooping flowers. The frail anemone, unsheltered 'gainst the wind, Has lost its vivid glow before the ev'ning hours. The stream is silver clear, and limpid at its birth, But in a little while its purity is gone. A cloud across the sky that smiles serene on earth, And in a little while the dreary rain is born. And thus the world is made. O Fate, supreme and sad! As is the dream's dark shade, which ever swift appears, What grieves us still remains—'tis fled what made us glad— The rose lives but an hour—the cypress many years. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO HIS WIFE ON THE 16TH ANNIVERSARY OF HER WEDDING DAY, WITH A RING by SAMUEL BISHOP VICKSBURG by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE PICTURES FROM APPLEDORE: 5 by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL IN EMULATION OF MR. COWLEYS POEM CALL'D THE MOTTO by MARY ASTELL SUNRISE AND SUNSET: 1. SUNRISE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |