Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Thomas Love Peacock 1785–1866

Margaret Love Peacock

PeacockL

LONG night succeeds thy little day:

O, blighted blossom! can it be

That this gray stone and grassy clay

Have clos’d our anxious care of thee?

The half-form’d speech of artless thought,

That spoke a mind beyond thy years,

The song, the dance by Nature taught,

The sunny smiles, the transient tears,

The symmetry of face and form,

The eye with light and life replete,

The little heart so fondly warm,

The voice so musically sweet,—

These, lost to hope, in memory yet

Around the hearts that lov’d thee cling,

Shadowing with long and vain regret

The too fair promise of thy Spring.