O lily-pond, thy early charm The years have not effaced; The wooing wild-wood's amorous arm Has wandered round thy waist. The treasure at thy rainbow's end As day is nearing night When sheen and shadow interblend, Is memory's delight. The palpitating butterfly Still eavesdropping doth seem As tree-tops whisper ceaselessly The scandal of the stream. Rome's cruelty of long ago Is a forgiven crime. This dragon-fly is working woe Now, as in Nero's time. It is not old, it is not new, This conquest and defeat;— The fish-hawk dreaming in the blue And dying at my feet. The guardian ferns' asexual brood Is envious of the bloom That overleans the luring flood A-dallying with doom. Like angels now ignoring time, Or saints in mortal guise, These lilies with their roots in slime Are fragrant of the skies. Fair fountain, 'neath thy leafy screen, Nor luminous than glass, While nimble seasons shift the scene The sluggard ages pass. Eternity engulfs them all,— Event and incident. The changeless is ephemeral, The changing permanent. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BODY BREAKING by MARVIN BELL SONG: SO OFTEN, SO LONG I HAVE THOUGHT by HAYDEN CARRUTH THEY HAVEN'T HEARD THE WEST IS OVER by JAMES GALVIN EPITAPH FOR A SOLDIER by DAVID IGNATOW UTOPIA by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ON A YOUNG LADY'S SIXTH ANNIVERSARY by KATHERINE MANSFIELD |