I mark’d the bright and fervid ray
The vernal bud enclose
Winter’s sunshine flatt’ring day
Nurse th’ embryo rose.
Cheer’d with genial warmth it grew
The garden’s early pride
And near to where exotics blew
Would to the wall confide.
The tender charms protection claim
And I had hop’d to see
Maturity the rose attain
That grac’d my fav’rite tree.
Deceitful presage of the spring
That call’d its beauty forth!
The beam implanted winter’s sting
The canker of the north.
I saw it sicken when the gale
The petals rudely blew
I saw it droop beneath the hail
Where late it kindly grew.
Musing I mourn’d its early fate
And moraliz’d the theme
Transient the joy our wishes greet
Our peace a summer’s gleam.
So bloom our hopes on life’s bleak plain
We court tomorrow’s spring;
The season oft of grief and pain
That disappointments bring.
Yet cheated by the partial ray
We bliss uncertain prize
Forget that virtue’s brightest day
To hope beyond the skies.