Poem by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Love's Parting Wreath

I give thee, love, a blooming braid;
    I cull'd it at eve's 'witching hour;
I twin'd it in the moon's sweet shade,
    When starlight dew was on each flower.

I chose the myrtle's fadeless leaf,
    For it will picture faith to thee;
I chose the cypress—'tis like grief—
    And that may well my emblem be.


I place the violet in my wreath—
    Its sigh is memory's perfume;
I place the rose, for its sweet breath
    Survives its beauty's passing bloom.

Oh! not a flower is here entwin'd,
    That lays not on thy thought a spell:
Forget-me-not, the wreath shall bind—
    Forget me not, is Love's farewell.

1. The Missionary’s Wife
2. Sonnet (Green willow! over whom the perilous blast)
3. The Reply of the Fountain
4. Fragment (Is not this grove)
5. Amelioration and the Future, Man's Noble Tasks

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