And dead leaves wrap the fruits that summer planted: 3 POOR withered rose and dry, Skeleton of a rose, Risen to testify To love's sad close: Treasured for love's sweet sake, That of joy past Thou might'st again awake Memory at last. Yet is thy perfume sweet; Thy petals red Yet tell of summer heat, And the gay bed: Yet, yet recall the glow Of the gazing sun, Joined hands in one. But, rose, thou hast not seen, The change that passed between, To me thou seemest yet The dead dream's thrall: While I live and forget Dream, truth and all. Thou art more fresh than I, The tears I shed. 4 THE CLIFF-TOP THE cliff-top has a carpet Of lilac, gold and green: The blue sky bounds the ocean, The white clouds scud between. A flock of gulls are wheeling And wailing round my seat; Above my head the heaven, The sea beneath my feet. THE OCEAN. Were I a cloud I'd gather As pointed the star surely, Above the house I'd hover Where dwells my love, and wait Till haply I might spy her Throw back the garden-gate. There in the summer evening And if her flowers should languish, Or wither in the drought Upon her tall white lilies I'd pour my heart's blood out: So if she wore one only, And shook not out the rain, Were I a cloud, O cloudlet, I had not lived in vain. A CLOUD. But were I thou, O ocean, I would not chafe and fret [A cloud speaks. I would be blue, and gentle, I'd make my depths transparent, I would command strange creatures, And tempt her bare arm in. I'd teach her spend the summer My love should love me well * But on the mad cloud scudded, 5 I HEARD a linnet courting I fear my speech distorting The phrases of his pleading His gay, sweet notes, So sadly marred in the reading,His tender notes. And when he ceased, the hearer Till swiftly perching nearer His pretty song :— Would that my verse spake clearer His tender song! Ye happy, airy creatures! Think not of what misfeatures Resign your simple natures, 6 DEAR lady, when thou frownest, But when again thou smilest, And takest truth in earnest ; 7 I WILL not let thee go. Ends all our month-long love in this? Can it be summed up so, Quit in a single kiss? I will not let thee go. I will not let thee go. If thy words' breath could scare thy deeds, As the soft south can blow And toss the feathered seeds, I will not let thee go. Had not the great sun seen, I might; |