ARDOUR AND MEMORY

The cuckoo-throb, the heartbeat of the Spring;

The rosebud's blush that leaves it as it grows

Into the full-eyed fair unblushing rose;

The summer clouds that visit every wing

With fires of sunrise and of sunsetting;

The furtive flickering streams to light re-born

‘ Mid airs new-fledged and valorous lusts of morn,

While all the daughters of the daybreak sing:—

These ardour loves, and memory: and when flown

All joys, and through dark forest-boughs in flight

The wind swoops onward brandishing the light,

Even yet the rose-tree's verdure left alone

Will flush all ruddy though the rose be gone;

With ditties and with dirges infinite.