Ah, deem not that this simple little flower
Unfolded all its tender bloom in vain;
Did it not glorify a summer hour,
And leave a sweetness in the summer rain?
Then sigh not for its transitoriness,
Or let this thought be joined to every sigh,
That a frail blossom's passing loveliness
Is lovelier for the thought that it must die!
A human life is like a precious flower.
One cannot truly live and be in vain:
A soul of beauty--nature's grandest dower--
Must leave a glory on the world's wide plain.
And e'en as zephyrs waft from shore to shore
The fragrant essence of the flowery lea;
So heaven-born Truth is floating evermore,
From age to age of our humanity.
