Poems (Sharpless)/Flower of Spring

by Frances M. Sharpless

FLOWERS OF SPRING IN MEMORIAM

Again the flowers of Spring; again
 The lovely darlings of the year;
But now they bring a thought of pain
 For one who loved them is not here.

The form whereon our heart is set,
 Behold! 'tis very fragile clay:—
A little flower is treasured yet
 When heart and hand are passed away.

But the true Love for whose dear sake
 We hoard the scentless withered thing,
No years can kill, no force can break,
 She knows no Autumn and no Spring.

Upward—away from earth and death,
 Up into purer realms she springs;
And on sustaining wings of Faith
 Soaring, in holy joy she sings.

"Flowers may come, and flowers may go,
 Summer and Winter, sun and cloud;
And sorrowing hearts awhile below
 Weep o'er the coffin and the shroud;—

"But of a birth Divine am I;—
 An offspring of Eternal Love;—
I cannot change, I cannot die,
 Fed from the exhaustless Fount above."