Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DIAL OF FLOWERS, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE DIAL OF FLOWERS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Twas a lonely thought to mark the hours
Last Line: A charm for the shaded eve.
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Charms (magic); Flowers


'TWAS a lonely thought to mark the hours
As they floated in light away,
By the opening and the folding flowers,
That laugh to the summer's day.

Thus had each moment its own rich hue,
And its graceful cup and bell
In whose colored vase might sleep the dew,
Like a pearl in an ocean-shell.

To such sweet signs might the time have flowed
In a golden current on,
Ere from the garden, man's first abode,
The glorious guests were gone.

So might the days have been brightly told --
Those days of song and dreams --
When shepherds gathered their flocks of old
By the blue Arcadian streams.

So in those isles of delight, that rest
Far off in a breezeless main,
Which many a bark, with a weary quest,
Has sought, but still in vain.

Yet is not life, in its real flight,
Marked thus -- even thus -- on earth,
By the closing of one hope's delight,
And another's gentle birth?

Oh! let us live, so that flower by flower,
Shutting in turn, may leave
A lingering still for the sunset hour,
A charm for the shaded eve.





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