IT is a gem which hath the power to show If plighted lovers keep their faith or no: If faithful, it is like the leaves of spring; If faithless, like those leaves when withering. Take back again your emerald gem, There is no colour in the stone; It might have graced a diadem, But now its hue and light are gone! Take back your gift, and give me mine -- The kiss that sealed our last love-vow; Ah, other lips have been on thine, -- My kiss is lost and sullied now! The gem is pale, the kiss forgot, And, more than either, you are changed; But my true love has alter'd not, My heart is broken -- not estranged! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PLEDGE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON IN THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE AT NEWPORT by EMMA LAZARUS ISAAC AND ARCHIBALD by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON ADAM'S CURSE by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS EPIGRAM by DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS SPLENDID ISOLATION; A MORAL FROM LEXINTON, 1775 by KATHARINE LEE BATES |