LOVE LIES BLEEDING
YOU call it, “Love lies bleeding,”–so you may, Though the red Flower, not prostrate, only droops, As we have seen it here from day to day, From month to month, life passing not away: A flower how rich in sadness! Even thus stoops, (Sentient by Grecian sculpture’s marvellous power) Thus leans, with hanging brow and body bent Earthward in uncomplaining languishment The dying Gladiator. So, sad Flower! (‘Tis Fancy guides me willing to be led, 10 Though by a slender thread,) So drooped Adonis bathed in sanguine dew Of his death-wound, when he from innocent air The gentlest breath of resignation drew; While Venus in a passion of despair Rent, weeping over him, her golden hair Spangled with drops of that celestial shower. She suffered, as Immortals sometimes do; But pangs more lasting far, ‘that’ Lover knew Who first, weighed down by scorn, in some lone bower 20 Did press this semblance of unpitied smart Into the service of his constant heart, His own dejection, downcast Flower! could share With thine, and gave the mournful name which thou wilt ever bear. 1845.