Page:Ethel Churchill Fragments II.pdf/29



How much of change lies in a little space! How soon the spirits leave their youth behind! The early green forsakes the bough; the flowers, Nature's more fairy-like and fragile ones, Droop on the way-side, and the later leaves Have artifice and culture—so the heart: How soon its soft spring hours take darker hues! And hopes, that were like rainbows, melt in shade; While the fair future, ah! how fair it seemed! Grows dark and actual.