1.
Hopes, that swell in youthful breasts,
Live not through the waste of time!
Love’s rose a host of thorns invests;
Cold, ungenial is the clime,
Where its honours blow. _5
Youth says, ‘The purple flowers are mine,’
Which die the while they glow.
2.
Dear the boon to Fancy given,
Retracted whilst it’s granted:
Sweet the rose which lives in Heaven, _10
Although on earth ’tis planted,
Where its honours blow,
While by earth’s slaves the leaves are riven
Which die the while they glow.
3.
Age cannot Love destroy, _15
But perfidy can blast the flower,
Even when in most unwary hour
It blooms in Fancy’s bower.
Age cannot Love destroy,
But perfidy can rend the shrine _20
In which its vermeil splendours shine.
NOTES: Love’s Rose—The title is Rossetti’s, 1870. _2 not through Esdaile manuscript; they this, 1858.
***
EYES: A FRAGMENT.
[Published by Rossetti, “Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.”, 1870; dated 1810. Included (four unpublished eight-line stanzas) in the Esdaile manuscript book.)]
How eloquent are eyes!
Not the rapt poet’s frenzied lay
When the soul’s wildest feelings stray
Can speak so well as they.
How eloquent are eyes! _5
Not music’s most impassioned note
On which Love’s warmest fervours float
Like them bids rapture rise.
Love, look thus again,—
That your look may light a waste of years, _10
Darting the beam that conquers cares
Through the cold shower of tears.
Love, look thus again!
***