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.