Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature: An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891. Vol. V: Literature of the Republic, Part II., 18211834 | | Stanzas: My life is like the summer rose | By Richard Henry Wilde (17891847) |
| [Born in Dublin, Ireland, 1789. Died in New Orleans, La., 1847. Inscribed to Ellen AdairMrs. White-BeattyDaughter of Gen. John Adair, of Kentucky.] |
| MY life is like the summer rose, | |
That opens to the morning sky, | |
But, ere the shades of evening close, | |
Is scattered on the groundto die! | |
Yet on the roses humble bed | 5 |
The sweetest dews of night are shed, | |
As if she wept the waste to see | |
But none shall weep a tear for me! | |
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My life is like the autumn leaf | |
That trembles in the moons pale ray: | 10 |
Its hold is frailits date is brief, | |
Restlessand soon to pass away! | |
Yet, ere that leaf shall fall and fade, | |
The parent tree will mourn its shade, | |
The winds bewail the leafless tree | 15 |
But none shall breathe a sigh for me! | |
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My life is like the prints, which feet | |
Have left on Tampas desert strand; | |
Soon as the rising tide shall beat, | |
All trace will vanish from the sand; | 20 |
Yet, as if grieving to efface | |
All vestige of the human race, | |
On that lone shore loud moans the sea | |
But none, alas! shall mourn for me! | | |
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