Page:Poems, Meynell, 1921.djvu/100

 TO SYLVIA

TWO YEARS OLD

ONG life to thee, long virtue, long delight,

A flowering early and late!

Long beauty, grave to thought and gay to sight,

A distant date!

Yet, as so many poets love to sing

(When young the child will die),

"No autumn will destroy this lovely spring,"

So, Sylvia, I.

I'll write thee dapper verse and touching rhyme;

"Our eyes shall not behold—"

The commonplace shall serve for thee this time:

"Never grow old."

For there's another way to stop thy clock

Within my cherishing heart,

To carry thee unalterable, and lock

Thy youth apart:

92