C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Author Unknown

I HAVE loved flowers that fade,

Within whose magic tents

Rich hues have marriage made

With sweet unmemoried scents:

A honeymoon delight,—

A joy of love at sight,

That ages in an hour:

My song, be like a flower!

I have loved airs, that die

Before their charm is writ

Along a liquid sky

Trembling to welcome it;

Notes, that with pulse of fire

Proclaim the spirit’s desire,

Then die, and are nowhere:

My song, be like an air!

Die, song, die like a breath,

And wither as a bloom:

Fear not a flowery death,

Dread not an airy tomb!