Classic Poem

I.

Flora gave me my choice of the sweetest of flowers;
That grew ever bright in her meadows and bowers,
And the one which I chose I still wear with me now,
Oh, it smooths my repose, and it brightens my brow:
Yet take it, dear youth, it but bloometh for thee,
And will not bloom less bright tho' parted from me;
No, a blush will surround it, all viewless before,
When plac'd near the heart of the youth I adore.

II.

Oh, few are the moments, on life's dreary waste,
Of enjoyment, we mortals are destin'd to taste;
And the sweetest we can in our pilgrimage prove,
Is the moment the heart first awakens to love.
But swift fly those hours, and fleetly we grieve,
That lovers are faithless, or friendships deceive;
And in silence and anguish we sit down and sigh,
Till deserted we mourn, and heart-broken we die.

III.

This life is all sunless, we've wept since our birth,
And 'midst tears we shall sink on thy bosom, O Earth;
Yet lay me, my friends, where the wild flowers grow,
Or where Ocean's bright waves everlastingly flow:
All urnless, all tombless, I'd rather be laid,
Than reposing beneath some richly-wrought shade,
Where the tears that would fall on the unknowing stone,
Would be wrung from hearts colder than even my own .