Compensation [pp. 524]

COMPENSA TION.[
COMPENSATION.
O snow-drop! born to grace
Young April's tearful face,
Thy heart's pure incense ever heavenward tending;
What due requital shall I make
That thus thy slender stem I break,
Rudely thy right of bloom and life offending?
Surmising if in thee,
To our humanity
Haply akin, some latent germ may wait
To link thee with a human sorrow,
Let me, awhile, thy sweetness borrow,
Thy paleness with a breathless.babe's to mate.
Type of frail infancy,
Blooming, ere long to die;
Fading, ere Spring's completed verdure shows,
Thou couldst not know the questering bee,
Nor smiling Summer e'er woo thee,
Nor joyful June enwreathe thee with her rose.
Come, then, the bier to share
Of flower than thee more fair,Our flower, with broken stem, that lowly lieth;
Upon her spotless breast to fade,
"Sweets to the sweet" must thou be laid
Till both re-bloom where beauty never dieth.
So, there, the Angel-child,
Transfigured, undefiled,
All love's amenities in Heaven renewed,
Still thee with happy clasp may hold,
While, renovate, thy leaves unfold,
Blending their own with her beatitude.
[DEC.
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