| |
| WHEN upon the western cloud | |
| Hang day’s fading roses, | |
| When the linnet sings aloud | |
| And the twilight closes,— | |
| As I mark the moss-grown spring | 5 |
| By the twisted holly, | |
| Pensive thoughts of thee shall bring | |
| Love’s own melancholy. | |
| |
| Lo, the crescent moon on high | |
| Lights the half-choked fountain; | 10 |
| Wandering winds steal sadly by | |
| From the hazy mountain. | |
| Yet that moon shall wax and wane, | |
| Summer winds pass over,— | |
| Ne’er the heart shall love again | 15 |
| Of the slighted lover! | |
| |
| When the russet autumn brings | |
| Blighting to the forest, | |
| Twisted close the ivy clings | |
| To the oak that’s hoarest; | 20 |
| So the love of other days | |
| Cheers the broken-hearted; | |
| But if once our love decays | |
| ’T is for aye departed. | |
| |
| When the hoar-frost nips the leaf, | 25 |
| Pale and sear it lingers, | |
| Wasted in its beauty brief | |
| By decay’s cold fingers; | |
| Yet unchanged it ne’er again | |
| Shall its bloom recover;— | 30 |
| Thus the heart shall aye remain | |
| Of the slighted lover. | |
| |
| Love is like the songs we hear | |
| O’er the moonlit ocean; | |
| Youth, the spring-time of a year | 35 |
| Passed in Love’s devotion! | |
| Roses of their bloom bereft | |
| Breathe a fragrance sweeter; | |
| Beauty has no fragrance left | |
| Though its bloom is fleeter. | 40 |
| |
| Then when tranquil evening throws | |
| Twilight shades above thee, | |
| And when early morning glows,— | |
| Think on those that love thee! | |
| For an interval of years | 45 |
| We ere long must sever, | |
| But the hearts that love endears | |
| Shall be parted never. | |
| |
