| Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829. | | | | To Emma | | By Richard B. Davis (1771–1799) |
| | | I ’VE seen the loveliest roses blow | |
| That Hudson’s verdant banks adorn; | |
| I ’ve seen the richest crimson glow | |
| That paints the smiling face of morn: | |
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| I ’ve listen’d while the evening gale, | 5 |
| (Fraught with the sweets of many a flower, | |
| Wafted sweet incense through the vale, | |
| And bless’d the contemplative hour. | |
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| Sweet tints the blushing rose adorn, | |
| And sweet the rays of morning shine | 10 |
| Sweet are the sounds by zephyrs borne, | |
| But sweeter charms, my fair, are thine. | |
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| The rose shall droop, its charms shall fade, | |
| Clouds shall obscure the brightest day; | |
| Music shall cease to bless the shade, | 15 |
| And even thy beauties must decay: | |
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| But the bright flame that warms thy breast, | |
| Beams from those eyes, and tunes that tongue, | |
| Virtue—shall ever shine confess’d, | |
| And ever claim my noblest song. | 20 | | | |
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