The Rose and Bird.
A birdling sang upon the spray,1
What time the lanes were white with May ;2
Sweet rose his thrilling, tender tune ;3
Ah ! how he welcomed sunny June.4
A crimson rose, her dewy head5
Upreared from her green, leafy bed,6
Toward the blue and cloudless sky,7
And thus she murmured with a sigh :8
‘ O that for ever June would last,9
Nor be the heavens e’er o’ercast ;10
That storms and gales should own no sway,11
My life be one long summer day.’12
Dark grew the sky ; the rain fell fast,13
And thunder mingled with the blast ;14
The birdie cowering ceased his mirth,15
The rose fell crushed and torn to earth.16
Thus is it ever ! When we dream17
No danger nigh, and safe we seem,18
Just Heaven checks our boastful pride,19
And sends the peril we denied !20