Page:Poems Sigourney, 1834.pdf/76

Rh

upon her mossy stem, Fair Queen of Flora's gay domain, All graceful wore her diadem, The brightest 'mid the brilliant train; But Evening came, with frosty breath, And ere the quick return of Day, Her beauties in the blight of death Had past away.

I saw when morning gemmed the sky A fair young creature gladly rove, Her moving lip was melody, Her varying smile the charm of love, At eve I came—but on her bed She drooped—with forehead pale as clay, "What dost thou here?"—she faintly said "Passing away."

I looked on manhood's towering form Like some tall oak when tempests blow, That scorns the fury of the storm And strongly strikes its root below, Again I looked,—with idiot cower His vacant eye's unmeaning ray