Love's Sudden Growth

I.

But yestermorn, with many a flower
The garden of my heart was dress'd;
A single tree has sprung to bloom,
Whose branches cast a tender gloom,
That shadows all the rest.

II.

A jealous and a tyrant tree,
That seeks to reign alone;
As if the wind's melodious sighs,
The dews and sunshine of the skies,
Were only made for One!

III.

A tree on which the Host of Dreams
Low murmur mystic things,
While hopes, those birds of other skies,
To dreams themselves chant low replies--
Ah, wherefore have they wings?

IV.

The seasons nurse the blight and storm,
The glory leaves the air--
The dreams and birds will pass away,
The blossom wither from the spray--
One day--the stem be bare--

V.

But mine has grown the Dryad's life,
Coeval with the tree;
The sun, the frost, the bloom, the fall,
My fate, sweet tree, must share them all,
To live and die with thee!