Classic Poem

The lilacs scented all the perfect air;
Bright living emeralds flashed on every spray:
Spring, ever fair to see, grew yet more fair
Within the eyes of May.

And I — I let my frost-bound heart expand;
I let the soft air lull me to repose.
I felt a joy the sun could understand,
The sun that courts the rose.

For, when the sun has striven through clouds and gloom
For many a weary league, for many an hour,
How must its strange soul worship all the bloom
Of one cloud-conquering flower.


There came a word those sunlit hours to mar.
Two rubies glittering on a golden ring
Said: " Soon will vanish some one dearer far
Than all the flowers of spring! "