Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

V. Death and Bereavement

Jeune Fille et Jeune Fleur

François-René vicomte de Chateaubriand (1768–1848)

THE BIER descends, the spotless roses too,

The father’s tribute in his saddest hour:

O Earth! that bore them both, thou hast thy due,—

The fair young girl and flower.

Give them not back unto a world again,

Where mourning, grief, and agony have power,—

Where winds destroy, and suns malignant reign,—

That fair young girl and flower.

Lightly thou sleepest, young Eliza, now,

Nor fear’st the burning heat, nor chilling shower;

They both have perished in their morning glow,—

The fair young girl and flower.

But he, thy sire, whose furrowed brow is pale,

Bends, lost in sorrow, o’er thy funeral bower,

And Time the old oak’s roots doth now assail,

O fair young girl and flower!