As Love will carve dear names upon a tree, <br />Symbol of gravure on his heart to be, <br /> <br />So thought I thine with loving text to set <br />In the growth and substance of my canzonet; <br /> <br />But, writing it, my tears begin to fall -- <br />This wild-rose stem for thy large name's too small! <br /> <br />Nay, still my trembling hands are fain, are fain <br />Cut the good letters though they lap again; <br /> <br />Perchance such folk as mark the blur and stain <br />Will say, `It was the beating of the rain;' <br /> <br />Or, haply these o'er-woundings of the stem <br />May loose some little balm, to plead for them.<br /><br />Sidney Lanier<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-dedication-to-charlotte-cushman/
