The Silken Tassel/Love and Beauty
Love and Beauty
No bloom the season will outlive,
No flower outgrows its perfume sweet,
No full-moon e’er outshines the night,
No joyous dreams outsmile the sleep;
The rosy dawn is lost in light,
The rainbow still has fleeter feet;
And Beauty, ere a flower can give,
Lies wither’d like a mouldering heap:
Then weep, and weep, and weep!
No flower outgrows its perfume sweet,
No full-moon e’er outshines the night,
No joyous dreams outsmile the sleep;
The rosy dawn is lost in light,
The rainbow still has fleeter feet;
And Beauty, ere a flower can give,
Lies wither’d like a mouldering heap:
Then weep, and weep, and weep!
My love is not a blithesome bird
That gaily flits from branch to branch,
But, like the Yogi’s heaven-bound eyes,
It ever doth one vigil keep:
So when that other turns unstirr’d—
Thy charms his thirst can no more quench,
Wilt thou not then with hopeless sighs
Think of my love’s devotion deep,
And weep, and weep, and weep?
That gaily flits from branch to branch,
But, like the Yogi’s heaven-bound eyes,
It ever doth one vigil keep:
So when that other turns unstirr’d—
Thy charms his thirst can no more quench,
Wilt thou not then with hopeless sighs
Think of my love’s devotion deep,
And weep, and weep, and weep?