Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LOVERS AND SWEETHEARTS, by PHOEBE CARY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Fair youth, too timid to lift your eyes Last Line: Nor age to the loving heart! Subject(s): Love – Beginnings; Love – Nature Of | ||||||||
FAIR youth, too timid to lift your eyes To the maiden with downcast look, As you mingle the gold and brown of your curls Together over a book; A fluttering hope that she dare not name Her trembling bosom heaves; And your heart is thrilled, when your fingers meet, As you softly turn the leaves. Perchance you two will walk alone Next year at some sweet day's close, And your talk will fall to a tenderer tone, As you liken her cheek to a rose; And then her face will flush and glow, With a hopeful, happy red; Outblushing all the flowers that grow Anear in the garden-bed. If you plead for hope, she may bashful drop Her head on your shoulder, low; And you will be lovers and sweethearts then As youths and maidens go: Lovers and sweethearts, dreaming dreams, And seeing visions that please, With never a thought that life is made Of great realities; That the cords of love must be strong as death Which hold and keep a heart, Not daisy-chains, that snap in the breeze, Or break with their weight apart; For the pretty colors of youth's fair morn Fade out from the noonday sky; And blushing loves, in the roses born, Alas! with the roses die! But the love, that when youth's morn is past, Still sweet and true survives, Is the faith we need to lean upon In the crises of our lives: The love that shines in the eyes grown dim, In the voice that trembles speaks; And sees the roses, that a year ago Withered and died in our cheeks; That sheds a halo round us still, Of soft immortal light, When we change youth's golden coronal For a crown of silver white: A love for sickness and for health, For rapture and for tears; That will live for us, and bear with us Through all our mortal years. And such there is; there are lovers here, On the brink of the grave that stand, Who shall cross to the hills beyond, and walk Forever hand in hand! Pray, youth and maid, that your end be theirs, Who are joined no more to part; For death comes not to the living soul, Nor age to the loving heart! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CRY GOING OUT OVER PASTURES by ROBERT BLY AND KNEELING AT THE EDGE OF THE TRANSPARENT SEA I SHALL SHAPE FOR ... by ANNE CARSON THE GLASS ESSAY by ANNE CARSON AMONG MY FRIENDS LOVE IS A GREAT SORROW by ROBERT DUNCAN CHOSEN BY THE LION by LINDA GREGG THE SMALL THING LOVE IS by LINDA GREGG ADVISING MYSELF by PHILIP LEVINE A LEGEND OF THE NORTHLAND by PHOEBE CARY |
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