Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume III. Sorrow and Consolation. 1904. | | | | I. Disappointment in Love | | “Has summer come without the rose?” | | Arthur William Edgar O’Shaughnessy (1844–1881) |
| | | HAS summer come without the rose, | |
| Or left the bird behind? | |
| Is the blue changed above thee, | |
| O world! or am I blind? | |
| Will you change every flower that grows, | 5 |
| Or only change this spot, | |
| Where she who said, I love thee, | |
| Now says, I love thee not? | |
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| The skies seemed true above thee, | |
| The rose true on the tree; | 10 |
| The bird seemed true the summer through, | |
| But all proved false to me. | |
| World, is there one good thing in you, | |
| Life, love, or death—or what? | |
| Since lips that sang, I love thee, | 15 |
| Have said, I love thee not? | |
| |
| I think the sun’s kiss will scarce fall | |
| Into one flower’s gold cup; | |
| I think the bird will miss me, | |
| And give the summer up. | 20 |
| O sweet place, desolate in tall | |
| Wild grass, have you forgot | |
| How her lips loved to kiss me, | |
| Now that they kiss me not? | |
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| Be false or fair above me; | 25 |
| Come back with any face, | |
| Summer!—do I care what you do? | |
| You cannot change one place,— | |
| The grass, the leaves, the earth, the dew, | |
| The grave I make the spot,— | 30 |
| Here, where she used to love me, | |
| Here, where she loves me not. | | | | |
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