OH Heart-Ease, dost thou lie within that flower? How shall I draw thee thence? -- so much I need The healing aid of thine enshrined power To veil the past -- and bid the time good speed! I gather it -- it withers on my breast; The Heart's-Ease dies when it is laid on mine; Methinks there is no shape by joy possess'd, Would better fare than thou upon that shrine. Take from me things gone by -- oh! change the past -- Renew the lost -- restore me the decay'd; -- Bring back the days whose tide has ebb'd so fast -- Give form again to the fantastic shade! My hope, that never grew to certainty, -- My youth, that perish'd in its vain desire, -- My fond ambition, crush'd ere it could be Aught save a self-consuming, wasted fire; Bring these anew, and set me once again In the delusion of Life's Infancy -- I was not happy, but I knew not then That happy I was never doom'd to be. Till these things are, and pow'rs divine descend -- Love, kindness, joy, and hope, to gild my day, In vain the emblem leaves towards me bend, Thy Spirit, Heart-Ease, is too far away! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EARTH'S IMMORTALITIES: LOVE by ROBERT BROWNING MY MOTHER by WILLIAM BELL SCOTT AN OLD WOMAN: 1 by EDITH SITWELL THERE WAS A BOY (VERSION 1) by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH BATUSCHKA by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |