This undeparting Flower in crimson dyed,
Thought of a wound which death is slow to cure,
A fate that has endured and will endure, 25
And, patience coveting yet passion feeding,
Called the dejected Lingerer, Love lies bleeding.
[256] The date of the composition of this poem is uncertain, but, as “companion” to Love lies Bleeding, it must be placed in immediate succession to it.—Ed.
THE CUCKOO-CLOCK
Composed 1842.—Published 1842
[Of this clock I have nothing further to say than what the poem expresses, except that it must be here recorded that it was a present from the dear friend for whose sake these notes were chiefly undertaken, and who has written them from my dictation.—I.F.]
One of the “Poems of the Imagination.”—Ed.