Henry Kendall

Early Poems (1859-70). The Ivy on the Wall

The verdant ivy clings around
 Yon moss be-mantled wall,
As if it sought to hide the stones,
 That crumbling soon must fall:
That relic of a bygone age
 Now tottering to decay,
Has but one friend—the ivy—left.
 The rest have passed away.

The fairy flowers that once did bloom
 And smile beneath its shade;
They lingered till the autumn came,
 And autumn saw them fade:
The emerald leaves that blushed between—
 The winds away have blown;
But yet to cheer the mournful scene,
 The ivy liveth on.

Thus heavenly hope will still survive,
 When earthly joys have fled;
And all the flow'ry dreams of youth
 Lie withering and dead.
When Winter comes—it twines itself
 Around the human heart;
And like the ivy on the wall
 Will ne'er from thence depart.