VIOLET! sweet violet! Thine eyes are full of tears; Are they wet Even yet With the thought of other years? Or with gladness are they full, For the night so beautiful, And longing for those far-off spheres? Loved one of my youth thou wast, Of my merry youth, And I see, Tearfully, All the fair and sunny past, All its openness and truth, Ever fresh and green in thee As the moss is in the sea. Thy little heart, that hath with love Grown colored like the sky above, On which thou lookest ever, -- Can it know All the woe Of hope for what returneth never, All the sorrow and the longing To these hearts of ours belonging? Out on it! no foolish pining For the sky Dims thine eye, Or for the stars so calmly shining; Like thee let this soul of mine Take hue from that wherefor I long, Self-stayed and high, serene and strong, Not satisfied with hoping -- but divine. Violet! dear violet! Thy blue eyes are only wet With joy and love of Him who sent thee, And for the fulfilling sense Of that glad obedience Which made thee all that Nature meant thee! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DILIGENCE IS TO MAGIC AS PROGRESS IS TO FLIGHT by MARIANNE MOORE VICTORY BELLS by GRACE HAZARD CONKLING THE DYING SOLDIER by ISAAC ROSENBERG THE LONG AGO by BENJAMIN FRANKLIN TAYLOR LINES ON EXODUS 3:14 by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD OTHER SPRINGS by ROSEMARY BASEFLUG THE SOLDIER'S TEAR by THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 43. FAREWELL TO JULIET (5) by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |