Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke
Isabella Valancy Crawford (18501887)The Rose
T
He, sudden seeing it in later years,
Should swift remember Love’s first lingering kiss
And Grief’s last lingering tears;
Knit all its piercing perfume round his own,
Till he should see on Memory’s ample scroll
All roses he had known;
Careless might touch the satin of its cup,
And he should feel a dead babe’s budding lips
To his lips lifted up;
Should, on a sudden, almost hear a lark
Rush singing up—the nightingale afar
Sing thro’ the dew-bright dark;
Circle old graves, its keen and vital breath
Should call to him within the yew’s bleak bound
Of Life, and not of Death.