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IRISH SONGS AND LYRICS 495 |
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All I have seen, and all I see,
Only endears them more and more; Friends cool, hopes fade, and hours flee,
Affection lives when all is o'er !
Farewell, my more than native shore ! I do not seek or hope to find,
Roam where I will, what I deplore To leave with them and thee behind !
MY LIFE IS LIKE THE SUMMER ROSE'
M
Y life is like the summer rose, That opens to the morning sky, But ere the shades of evening close, Is scattered on the ground—to die. Yet on the rose's humble bed The sweetest dews of night are shed, As if she wept the waste to see — But none shall weep a tear for me !
My life is like the autumn leaf,
That trembles in the moon's pale ray,
Its hold is frail—its date is brief, Restless—and soon to pass away !
1 These beautiful verses ran the risk of being considered merely a translation from the Greek. Some time after their publication they appeared in a Georgia newspaper in Greek, purporting to be an ode written by Alcaeus, an early Eolian poet of obscure fame. Mr. Wilde, conscious that the poem was his own, had the matter investigated. It was found that the author was a young Oxford scholar, who had translated the poem into Greek for the purpose of deciding a wager that no one in the University was sufficiently familiar with the style of the early Greek poets to detect the forgery. We believe the student won the wager. |
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