06 November 2013

The Winter of the Heart - An 1853 Poem

I loved thee in the Spring time,
The fresh and bonnie Spring,
When birds were whistling in the wood
Or flitting on the wing;
My wild affections sprang to life
Like wild fountains in those hours;
My heart expanded with the buds
And opened with the flowers.
 
The Spring hath kindred feelings
With those just knowing love;
We see it in the tendril's clasp,
And learn it from the dove;
And when all bright and beauteous things
Their precepts taught to me,
I gave away a woman's heart,
A woman's trust to thee.
 
The chilling winds are stealing
A melancholy march,
And snowy coronets bedeck
The linden and the larch;
With Spring's gay songsters and its flowers
I saw my hopes depart,
And the Winter time of nature
Is the Winter of my Heart.
February 11, 1853. Nashville Daily Union 18(250): 1.