Poem by Augusta Webster

Once

I SET a lily long ago;
   I watched it whiten in the sun;
   I loved it well, I had but one.
   Then summer-time was done,
The wind came and the rain,
My lily bent, lay low.
Only the night-time sees my pain—
Alas, my lily long ago!

I had a rose-tree born in May;
   I watched it burgeon and grow red,
   I breathed the perfume that it shed.
   Then summer-time had sped,
The frost came with its sleep
My rose-tree died away.
Only the silence hears me weep—
Alas, lost rose-tree! lost, lost May!

The garden's lily blows once more;
   The buried rose will wake and climb;
   There is no thought of rain and rime
   After, next summer-time.
But the heart's blooms are weak;
Once dead for ever o'er.
Not night, not silence knows me seek
My joy that waned and blooms no more.

1. Young Laughters, and My Music!
2. Young May Sat Fainting and Chill
3. Circe
4. In after Years
5. The Brook Leaps Riotous

Menella Smedley Once ("Sing to me, nightingale, that sweet tune")

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