Classic Poem

A STATUARY GROUP, BY WESTMACOTT .

And the summer sun shone in the sky,
And the rose's whole life was in its sigh,
When her eyelids were kiss'd by a morning beam,
And the Nymph rose up from her moonlit dream;
For she had watch'd the midnight hour
Till her head had bow'd like a sleeping flower;
But now she had waken'd, and light and dew
Gave her morning freshness and morning hue, —
Up she sprang, and away she fled
O'er the lithe grass stem and the blossom's head;
From the lilies' bells she dash'd not the spray,
For her feet were as light and as white as they.
Sudden upon her arm there shone
A gem with the hues of an Indian stone,
And she knew the insect bird whose wing
Is sacred to P SYCHE and to Spring;
But scarce had her touch its captive prest,
Ere another prisoner was on her breast;
And the Zephyr sought his prize again, —
" No, " said the Nymph, " thy search is vain. "
And her golden hair from its braided yoke
Burst like the banner of hope as she spoke:
" And instead, fair boy, thou shalt moralise
Over the pleasure that from thee flies;
Then it is pleasure, for we possess
But in the search, not in the success. "