Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MIRIAM, by ALICE CARY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MIRIAM, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Like to that little homely flower
Last Line: Will cross the threshold, never more.
Subject(s): Love


LIKE to that little homely flower
That never from her rough house stirs
While summer lasts, but sits and combs
The sunbeams with her purple burs,

So kept she in her house content
While love's bright summer with her stayed;
But change works change, and since she met
A shadow from the land of shade;

The ghost of that wild flower that sits
In her rough house, and never stirs
While summer lasts, has not a face
So dead of meaning, as is hers.

In vain the pitying year puts on
Her rose-red mornings, for like streams
Lost from the sunlight under banks
Of wintry darkness, are her dreams.

In vain among their clouds of green
The wild birds sing -- she says with tears
Their sweet tongues stammer in the tunes
They sang so well in other years.

Her home in ruins lies, and thorns
Choke with their briery arms, the door;
What matter, says she, since that love
Will cross the threshold, never more.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


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