"O SEEK not with untimely art To ope the bud before it blows, Bewitching from the folded heart Reluctant petals of the rose! "Too quickly cherished, quickly dear, She came, the graceful child and gay,— O leave her in her early year Till April crimson into May! "The golden sun shall glance and go, Shall rest and tremble in her hair; Beside her cheek shall love to blow The soft and kindly English air;— "O leave her glad with such caress, In such embraces clasped and free, Nor teach thy hasty heart to guess The woman and the love to be." Thus with myself my thoughts complain, And so by night shall I be wise, Till on my heart arise again Her open and illumined eyes. A moment then the past prevails And in the man is manhood strong, Then from the bruisèd soul exhales The sweet and quivering flame of song. Oh if indeed with time and tide Too fast the changeful seasons flow, And loving life from life divide And shape and sunder as they go,— Yet with what airy bonds I may Her flying soul shall I retain, And sometimes, dreaming in the day, Shall see her, as she smiled, again:— A girlish joy shall haunt the spot, A presence shall illume the shade, And unembraced and unforgot Shall rise the vision of a maid. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DESERTER['S MEDITATION] by JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN THE WIND IN A FROLIC by WILLIAM HOWITT INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF MY UNCLE ARLY by EDWARD LEAR RECOLLECTION by ANNE REEVE ALDRICH JUNGLE by WILLIMINA L. ARMSTRONG THEODORE ROOSEVELT by MORRIS ABEL BEER A NEW PILGRIMAGE: 38 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |