Page:Translations from Camoens; and Other Poets.pdf/63



O bitter tears for thee be shed, Blossom of being! seen and gone! With flowers alone we strew thy bed, O blest departed One! Whose all of life, a rosy ray, Blushed into dawn, and passed away.

Yes! thou art fled, ere guilt had power To stain thy cherub-soul and form, Closed is the soft ephemeral flower, That never felt a storm! The sunbeam's smile, the zephyr's breath, All that it knew from birth to death.

Thou wert so like a form of light, That Heaven benignly called thee hence, Ere yet the world could breathe one blight O'er thy sweet innocence: And thou, that brighter home to bless, Art passed, with all thy loveliness!