Classic Poem

I SEND to you a nosegay that but now
I chose among the full-blown blossoms gay.
Had one not gathered them at eve to-day
The morrow morn had found them fallen low.

Let this ensample speak to you, and show
That even your beauties, in their flower-array,
Ere little time must fade and fall away
And like the flowers in one swift moment go

Time passes swift, my love, ah! swift it flies!
Yet no—Time passes not, but we—we pass,
And soon shall lie outstretched beneath a stone.

And for this love we talk of—Death replies
Forever not one word of it, alas!…
Then love me, while thou'rt fair, ere youth is gone!