Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE THREE SEASONS OF LOVE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: With laughter swimming in thine eye
Last Line: Open in immortality!
Alternate Author Name(s): North, Christopher
Subject(s): Love


WITH laughter swimming in thine eye,
That told youth's heartfelt revelry!
And motion changeful as the wing
Of swallow waken'd by the spring;
With accents blithe as voice of May,
Chanting glad nature's roundelay;
Circled by joy like planet bright
That smiles mid wreaths of dewy light, --
Thy image such, in former time,
When thou, just entering on thy prime,
And woman's sense in thee combined
Gently with childhood's simplest mind,
First taught'st my sighing soul to move
With hope towards the heaven of love!
Now years have given my Mary's face
A thoughtful and a quiet grace; --
Though happy still -- yet chance distress
Hath left a pensive loveliness!
Fancy hath tamed her fairy gleams,
And thy heart broods o'er home-born dreams:
Thy smiles, slow-kindling now and mild,
Shower blessings on a darling child;
Thy motion slow, and soft thy tread,
As if round thy hush'd infant's bed!
And when thou speak'st, thy melting tone,
That tells thy heart is all my own.
Sounds sweeter, from the lapse of years,
With the wife's love, the mother's fears!
By thy glad youth, and tranquil prime
Assured, I smile at hoary time!
For thou art doom'd in age to know
The calm that wisdom steals from wo;
The holy pride of high intent,
The glory of a life well spent.
When earth's affections nearly o'er
With peace behind, and faith before,
Thou renderest up again to God,
Untarnish'd by its frail abode,
Thy lustrous soul, -- then harp and hymn,
From bands of sister seraphim,
Asleep will lay thee, till thine eye
Open in immortality!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net