Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO ADOLPHE GAIFFE by THEODORE FAULLAIN DE BANVILLE

First Line: YOUNG MAN FREE FROM MELANCHOLY
Last Line: WORDS! WORDS! COME GATHER ROSES.
Subject(s): FLOWERS; ROSES; SPRING; WISDOM; YOUTH;
Young man free from melancholy,
Fair as an Italian sky,
Keep the freshness of your folly,

It is wisdom. To love wine,
Beauty, and the spring divine,
Is enough. The rest pass by.

Smile, e'en at a bitter fate!
Springtime comes if you but wait:
Pluck its flowers for your glass.

When your hour shall come to pass
What is left? The golden day
Of your loving-time in May.

"Seek cause and effect," they say.
What gloomy dreams the thought discloses!
Words! words! Come gather roses.



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