THE SUMMER-TIME IS IN THE ROSE, a poem

THE summer-time is in the rose;
     'T is but to breathe once more
The perfume that its leaves enclose
     The summer to restore.
But how should summer bloom for him
     Who must its rose resign?
A winter, changeless in his heart,
     Repeats:—"Not mine!—not mine!"

Ah, sorrowful to give in vain—
     To love when hope is not!
To cover with a smile the pain
     That will not be forgot!
To journey to a living spring
     Of water, welling sweet,—
To long as with a desert thirst,
     Yet turn away the feet!

"The Summer-Time is in the Rose" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in The Unconquered Air (1912) and Poems (1916) Volume II.