Page:Elegiac Sonnets and Other Essays The Second Edition.pdf/28

[  14    ] II.But go! and on breast
 * Find, happy flower, thy throne and tomb;

While, jealous of a fate so blest,
 * How shall I envy thee thy doom!

Should some rude hand approach thee there,
 * Guard the sweet shrine thou wilt adorn;

Ah! punish those who rashly dare,
 * And for my rivals keep thy thorn.

III.Love shall himself thy boughs compose,
 * And bid thy wanton leaves divide;

He'll shew thee how, my lovely rose,
 * To deck her bosom, not to hide:

And thou shalt tell the cruel maid
 * How frail are youth and beauty's charms,

And teach her, ere her own shall fade,
 * To give them to her lover's arms.

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