SWEETBRIAR.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXI, Issue 158, 30 January 1889, Page 6

SWEETBRIAR.

A branch of sweetbriar Ah, my heart ! The tender tears unbidden start

To weary, world-worn eyes ; I kiss the faded, fragrant spray, And memories of a byegone day

Before my vision x'ise. How often my lost darling wore The sweetbriar green ! She loved it more

Than many-tinted bloom ; It often graced her maiden breast— Now planted where she lies at rest,

It clings about her tomb. My little love in days of old ! Youth's morning hour of rose and gold

Comes back to me to-night ; I see her in her girlish grace, The sunny sweetness of her face,

Her childish robe of white. I smell the sweetbriar in her hand, I see the garden where we stand

Upon the southern shore, I hear the rippling streamlet fall, I hear her laughter musical,

Now silenced evermore. She was too frail for earth's employ, Too calm and pure for human joy ;

But like the sweetbriar green, The memory of her gentle life " Make sweet the years of worldly strife

That lie our lives between. Thy life and mine, my little love, My life below, thy life above,

God's love shall reunite ; I kiss the tiny, faded spray, My sweetheart graces far away The land of pure delight !