Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/350

THE ANGEL AND THE FLOWER.

I SAW a child—a lovely flower,
 Spring to the Summer's breath;
I looked again—twas but an hour—
 And lo, 'twas laid in death!

I asked an angel why it was so,
 Why such to earth were given?
The angel said, "They spring below.
 But have their bloom in heaven!"

LOVE AND WISDOM.

When hearts are giving sigh for sigh,
 And pouring out their treasure,
When the fond breast is beating high
 With Love's delicious pleasure.
Oh, why should Wisdom ever come
 To cast a shade o'er feeling,
Oh, why should Wisdom ever come,
 Life's sweetest pleasure stealing!

When lip to lip is warmly pressed,
 And heart to heart is leaning,
Feeling what cannot be expressed,
 Though Love divines the meaning;
Oh, why should Wisdom ever come
 To cast a shade o'er feeling,
Oh, why should Wisdom ever come,
 Life's sweetest pleasure stealing!

We cannot love and still be wise—
 This truth is past concealing;
Wisdom must see; Love has no eyes,
 But trusts alone to feeling;
Then why should Wisdom ever come
 To cast a shade o'er feeling,
Oh, why should Wisdom ever come,
 Life's sweetest pleasure stealing!

If Wisdom, then, casts Love away,
 As fruit discards the blossom,
Oh, take old Wisdom, let Love stay,
 He's dearer to my bosom;
For why should Wisdom ever come
 To cast a shade o'er feeling,
Oh, why should Wisdom ever come,
 Life's sweetest pleasure stealing!

BIRTH OF CUPID.

A TEAR-DROP fell from an angel's eye,
 And lodged in the cup of a flower;
While trembling there, 'twas embraced by a sigh.
 And Cupid was born in the bower.

Thus sprang from embraces, so sweetly impress'd.
 The child of a sigh and a tear,
And reared on the sweets of a flower's breast,
 Why marvel he's wayward, sweet, tender, and dear?

IDOLA.

Her cheek is pale, her eye of blue so full
 You see the tear-drop start;
She is too tender and too beautiful
 For death's unerring dart;
Yet God receives the dutiful—
 Be still, my heart!