"O SEEK not with untimely art To ope the bud before it blows, Bewitching from the folded heart Reluctant petals of the rose! "Too quickly cherished, quickly dear, She came, the graceful child and gay,— O leave her in her early year Till April crimson into May! "The golden sun shall glance and go, Shall rest and tremble in her hair; Beside her cheek shall love to blow The soft and kindly English air;— "O leave her glad with such caress, In such embraces clasped and free, Nor teach thy hasty heart to guess The woman and the love to be." Thus with myself my thoughts complain, And so by night shall I be wise, Till on my heart arise again Her open and illumined eyes. A moment then the past prevails And in the man is manhood strong, Then from the bruisèd soul exhales The sweet and quivering flame of song. Oh if indeed with time and tide Too fast the changeful seasons flow, And loving life from life divide And shape and sunder as they go,— Yet with what airy bonds I may Her flying soul shall I retain, And sometimes, dreaming in the day, Shall see her, as she smiled, again:— A girlish joy shall haunt the spot, A presence shall illume the shade, And unembraced and unforgot Shall rise the vision of a maid. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODE ON THE POETICAL CHARACTER by WILLIAM COLLINS (1721-1759) MY NOVEMBER GUEST by ROBERT FROST CASSANDRA SOUTHWICK; 1658 by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER THE MORAL FABLES: THE PROLOG by AESOP A LEAVE-TAKING: 2 by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE AN EPISTLE TO J. BL-K-N, ESQ.: ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST by JOHN BYROM |