OBSERVE the rose-bud ere it blows, While the dawn glimmers o'er the sky; Observe its silken leaves unfold, As fond of day's majestic eye! At noon, more bold, in fullest bloom, It spreads a gale of sweets around; At eve it mourns the setting sun, And sheds its honour on the ground. So beauty's bashful bud appears, So blushes in the eye of praise: So ripens in the noon of life, And wither'd so in age decays. Time is the canker-worm of youth, It bites the blossom as it grows, It blasts the flower that blooms at full, And rudely sheds the falling rose. See, beauty, see! how love and joy On youth's light pinions haste away; How swift the moments glide along, And age advances with delay! Now, beauty, crop the rose-bud now, And catch the essence as it flies; Let pleasure revel in its bloom, Let time possess it when it dies. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONTRA MORTEM: THE MOON by HAYDEN CARRUTH THEN AND NOW by CECIL DAY LEWIS A PECK OF GOLD by ROBERT FROST DREAM LIFE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON BRER RABBIT, YOU'S DE CUTES' OF 'EM ALL by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON DOWN BY THE CARIB SEA: 3. TEESTAY by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON MOTHER NIGHT by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON |