Classic Poem

While earth was sleeping in the opal dawn
She dreamed of beauty, for a presence bright
Laid on her breast a rose, but in the light
She wakened and her angel guest had gone.

Then softly o'er her senses like a prayer,
A perfume drifted, known in Paradise,
An incense of Love's holiest sacrifice—
An evanescent fragrance, rich and rare.

O Loveliness, too soon to disappear,
The wildering grace that wraps the rose's heart
Is still the ultimate despair of art—
A pearl that, vanishing, leaves but a tear.

These petals shame mortality and blight;
Their beauty lustres Love's most transient thought,
What though our earthly senses have but caught
One touch of crimson on the wing of night.