I. FLOWER of the vine! I scarcely knew or saw how love began; So mean a flower brings forth the sweetest wine! O mandolines that thrill the moonlit street, O lemon flowers so faint and freshly blown, O seas that lap a solemn music sweet Through all the pallid night against the stone, O lovers tramping past with happy feet, O heart that hast a memory of thine own -- For Mercy's sake no more, no more repeat The word it is so hard to hear alone! Flowers in the hay! My heart and all the fields are full of flowers; So tall they grow before the mowing-day. II. Rose in the rain! We part; I dare not look upon your tears: So frail, so white, they shatter and they stain. Love is a bird that breaks its voice with singing, Love is a rose blown open till it fall, Love is a bee that dies of its own stinging, And Love the tinsel cross upon a pall. Love is the Siren, towards a quicksand bringing Enchanted fishermen that hear her call. Love is a broken heart, -- Farewell, -- the wringing Of dying hands. Ah, do not love at all! Rosemary leaves! She who remembers cannot love again. She who remembers sits at home and grieves. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VIGNETTES OVERSEAS: 2. OFF ALGIERS by SARA TEASDALE THE TEMERAIRE by HERMAN MELVILLE FROM THE IONIAN ISLANDS by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES MONNA INNOMINATA, A SONNET OF SONNETS: 4 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI IDYLLS OF THE KING: THE PASSING OF ARTHUR by ALFRED TENNYSON |