Poems (Coates 1916)/Volume II/The Summer-Time is in the Rose

by Florence Earle Coates

For other versions of this work, see The Summer-Time is in the Rose.

THE SUMMER-TIME IS IN THE ROSE

THE summer-time is in the rose;
'T is but to breathe once more
The perfume that its leaves enclose
The summer to restore.
But how should summer bloom for him
Who must its rose resign?
A winter, changeless in his heart,
Repeats:—"Not mine!—not mine!"

Ah, sorrowful to give in vain—
To love when hope is not!
To cover with a smile the pain
That will not be forgot!
To journey to a living spring
Of water, welling sweet,—
To long as with a desert thirst,
Yet turn away the feet!