Poem by Ernest Charles Jones

Love and Song

I.

The nightingale rests on a waving bough,
    And sings to a pure white rose;
The rose—she lists to her lover's vow,
    And a blush on her pale cheek glows.

For erst the rose was stainless snow,
    Till love in her bosom stealing,
Painted her brow with a crimson glow,
    The flame of her passion revealing.

The nightingale's song was happy and gay;
But alas! a change came over his lay!

II.

The flower he 'loved began to fade!
    Could nought the beautiful save?
She drooped,—and the westwind came and laid
    Her low in her grassy grave!

Since then all sad is the nightingale's strain,
    Tho' he tunes to music his sighs;
He sings in sorrow his passionate pain,
    He sings his sorrow—and dies!

1. Earth's Burdens
2. Too Soon
3. The Life of a Flower
4. Prison Bars
5. The Sea Shell on the Desert

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