I saw thy cheek when 'twas fresh as spring,
Like a May rose newly blossoming;
When thy lip was red as the coral flower,—
Stainless and pure in the deep sea bower.
I saw thy brow when 'twas gay and fair—
Sorrow had then thrown no shadow there;
It was a sweet, a beautiful throne,
That love himself had been proud to own.
Smiles play'd o'er thy face, like the silvery light
The moon throws over the waters by night;
The halcyon's blue had tinted thine eyes,
Sunny and bright as the summer skies.
Thy laugh was glad as the sky lark's lay,
Thy step was light as the waterfall's spray—
When love and when pleasure around thee were glowing,
Like some bright bud in Eden blowing.
But now thou art chang'd! it is sad to gaze
On the faded beauty thy form displays;
Thy cheek is pale as the sickly flower,
Struggling in cold spring's sunless hour.
Thy blush is gone, and thy smile is fled,
And thy wan lip hath lost its delicate red;
Tears dim the light of thine azure eye,
And the dimple is banish'd by misery.
Nought rests of what once was so fair,
But thy glossy curls of auburn hair;
The golden braids seem too bright to twine
O'er a brow so shaded by sadness as thine.
Love has been to thee as the treacherous gale,
Opening the rose's mossy veil;
Sweetly it came, but its breath left there
The canker, Remorse, and the blight, Despair!