Poems (Follen)/To a beautiful Girl

by Eliza Lee Cabot Follen

TO A BEAUTIFUL GIRL.

Sweet flower, so young, so fresh, so fair,
Bright pleasure sparkling in thine eye;
Alas! e'en thee, time will not spare,
      For thou must die.

That heart, with youthful hope so gay,
That scarcely ever breathed a sigh,
Must weep o'er pleasures fled away;
      For all must die.

But, though the rosy cheek may fade,
The virtuous wish, the purpose high,
The bloom with which thy soul 's arrayed,
      Shall never die.