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.