Most of the Poems in this First Book have been recently composed, and hitherto unpublished; and those which have appeared before, have been, some materially altered, all carefully revised.
In the Second Book some Poems were written in early life, and have been but little altered; others—chiefly of a more thoughtful character—are of later date, and are now printed for the first time.
CORN-FLOWERS.
BOOK I.
THE FIRST VIOLETS.
Who that has loved knows not the tender tale
Which flowers reveal, when lips are coy to tell?
Whose youth has paused not, dreaming, in the vale
Where the rath violets dwell?
Lo, where they shrink along the lonely brake,
Under the leafless melancholy tree;
Not yet the cuckoo sings, nor glides the snake,
Nor wild thyme lures the bee;
Yet at their sight and scent entranced and thrall'd,
All June seems golden in the April skies;
How sweet the days we yearn for,—till fulfill'd:
O distant Paradise,
Dear Land to which Desire for ever flees;
Time doth no present to our grasp allow,
Say in the fix'd Eternal shall we seize
At last the fleeting Now?