Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.
Collige RosasWilliam Ernest Henley (18491903)
O
While yet in flower we find it,
For summer smiles, but summer goes,
And winter waits behind it.
The deed forborne for ever,
The worm Regret will canker on,
And time will turn him never.
And cheat of any laughter
The fate beneath us and above,
The dark before and after.
The sunshine and the swallow,
The dream that comes, the wish that goes,
The memories that follow!