Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (62)

    JULY, and June brought flowers and love To you, but I would none thereof, Whose heart kept all through summer time A flower of frost and winter rime¹. Yours was true wisdom - was it not？ - Even love； but I had clean forgot, Till seasons of the falling leaf, All loves, but one that turned to grief. At length at touch of autumn tide, When roses fell, and summer died, All in a dawning deep with dew, Love flew to me, love fled from you.

    The roses drooped² their weary heads, I spoke³ among the garden beds； You would not hear, you could not know, Summer and love seemed long ago, As far, as faint, as dim a dream, As to the dead this world may seem. Ah sweet, in winter's miseries⁴, Perchance you may remember this, How wisdom was not justified⁵ In summer time or autumn-tide, Though for this once below the sun, Wisdom and love were made at one； But love was bitter-bought enough, And wisdom light of wing as love.