Once
Augusta Davies Webster 1837 (Poole, Dorset) – 1894
I SET a lily long ago;
I watched it whiten in the sun;
I loved it well, I had but one.
Then summer-time was done,
The wind came and the rain,
My lily bent, lay low.
Only the night-time sees my pain—
Alas, my lily long ago!
I had a rose-tree born in May;
I watched it burgeon and grow red,
I breathed the perfume that it shed.
Then summer-time had sped,
The frost came with its sleep
My rose-tree died away.
Only the silence hears me weep—
Alas, lost rose-tree! lost, lost May!
The garden's lily blows once more;
The buried rose will wake and climb;
There is no thought of rain and rime
After, next summer-time.
But the heart's blooms are weak;
Once dead for ever o'er.
Not night, not silence knows me seek
My joy that waned and blooms no more.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 44 sec read
- 113 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBBCACA DEEEFDFD GHDHIXIG |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 732 |
Words | 146 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
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"Once" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/4100/once>.
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