Landon in The Literary Gazette 1824/Song 4

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

For works with similar titles, see Song (Letitia Elizabeth Landon).

For works with similar titles, see Fragment (Letitia Elizabeth Landon).

Literary Gazette, 31st January, 1824, Page 74

SONG.

The wreath of green leaves that was bound
    Amid your chesnut hair,
Is scattered,— look upon the ground,
    The leaves are lying there.
And some are faded, some are stained,
Some crushed, and not one has retained
    Its sweet and summer share
Of graceful shape and fresh green hue,
Such as they were when given you.

Around thy heart there is a wreath
    Of fair hopes fresh and green,
Breathed on by young Love's summer breath;
    A little while, I ween,
The green hopes will have died away,
As utterly gone to decay
    As they had never been.
The wreath that bound your heart and hair
Were made the self-same fate to share.

Your shining curls flow wild on air,
    Their braiding wreath undone;
Your heart lies desolate and bare,
    Its hope's glad foliage gone.
And such the destiny that clings
To all earth's fair and fragrant things;
    And such will be thine own;
The wasted heart, the withered tree,
Are emblems of thy fate and Thee.⁠L. E. L.