The Worm and the Flower.
You’re spinning for my lady, worm !1
Silk garments for the fair ;2
You’re spinning rainbows for a form3
More beautiful than air,4
When air is bright with sunbeams,5
And morning mists arise,6
From woody vales and mountain-streams,7
To blue autumnal skies.8
You’re training for my lady, flower !9
You’re opening for my
love ;10
The glory of her summer bower,11
While skylarks soar above.12
Go, twine her locks with rosebuds,13
Or breathe upon her breast,14
While zephyrs curl the water-floods,15
And rock the halcyon’s nest.16
But oh ! there is another worm17
Ere long will visit her,18
And revel on her lovely form19
In the dark sepulchre :20
Yet from that sepulchre shall spring21
A flower as sweet as this ;22
Hard by, the nightingale shall sing,23
Soft winds its petals kiss.24
Frail emblems of frail beauty, ye !25
In beauty who would trust ?26
Since all that charms the eye must be27
Consign’d to worms and dust :28
Yet, like the flower that decks her tomb,29
Her spirit shall quit the clod,30
And shine, in amaranthine bloom,31
Fast by the throne of God.32