The gift you gave me of much joy
        That caused a heart like flower
To open, you may not destroy
        Though canker yet devour,
For so the bloom itself deploy
        Upon the proper hour.

So it have fallen from the stalk,
        So lain the ruffled petal,
For you away from me must walk
        And I must find the mettle
To heed time’s tide nor ever balk
        But let the matter settle.

It were a pungency erased
        The quantum part of pain,
And so, that I had been so graced
        I never can disdain,
Though such a sweetness unreplaced
        May never come again.