Landon in The Literary Gazette 1824/Constancy 2
Literary Gazette, 20th November, 1824, Pages 748
ORIGINAL POETRY.
CONSTANCY.
-----Can the heart change
When it hath made unto itself a home
And place of worship, sanctified by all
Those gentle ties that are as chains of gold—
Affection of long years, and faith, like wine,
Made bright and pure by keeping?—Is not this
The Paradise of Love?---
Aye, let us look on all around,
And see how all have changed.
This jasmine, with its amber shower,
How its green stems have ranged!
This mountain-ash, whose flower-fill'd boughs
Spread like a cloud at noon—
Whose shade is as a haunted place
For the sweet airs of June:
'Twas but a little shrub when first
I wreathed amid thy hair
Its berries, like the coral crown
That the sea-maidens wear.
One of my earliest gifts of love
Were apples from yon tree;
And then the red fruit of its boughs
Might well be offered thee.
Now it stands, a deserted thing,
All desolate and bare;
The grey moss with'ring round the boughs,
And not a leaf is there.
A road winds where there once was seen
A steep and green ascent;
And not a willow's left, of those
That o'er the rill once bent.
Aye, look, there are the foot-prints mark'd
Of change on every side;
How much has altered since the bells
First hail'd thee as my bride.
And in this dream of chance and change,
We, too, have had our part—
In years, in face, in thought, have chang'd,
In all, except the heart.
But there at least there is no change;
There Love is burning still;
As constant as the sun at noon
On yonder southern hill. L. E. L.