Poems (Van Rensselaer)/Give Back, said Love

4645618Poems — Give Back, said LoveMariana Griswold Van Rensselaer
GIVE BACK, SAID LOVE
Give back, said Love, give back my stars and flowers,
Yield me my roses, cease thy summer song;
Prepare thy heart for dark and rainful hours;
Take these my thorns—for thou hast joyed too long.

Give me thy thorns, I cried, thy stormy rain,
Take all the roses in thy gardens grown;
Take the sweet stars, give me thy thorns of pain;
Give what thou wilt—if but it be thine own.