I want more lives in which to love <br />This world so full of beauty, <br />I want more days to use the ways <br />I know of doing duty; <br />I ask no greater joy than this <br />(So much I am life's lover,) <br />When I reach age to turn the page <br />And read the story over, <br />(Oh love stay near!) <br /> <br />Oh rapturous promise of the Spring! <br />Oh June fulfilling after! <br />If Autumns sigh, when Summers die, <br />'Tis drowned in Winter's laughter. <br />Oh maiden dawns, oh wifely noons, <br />Oh siren sweet, sweet nights, <br />I'd want no heaven could earth be given <br />Again with its delights, <br />(If love stayed near!) <br /> <br />There are such glories for the eye, <br />Such pleasures for the ear, <br />The senses reel with all they feel <br />And see and taste and hear; <br />There are such ways of doing good, <br />Such ways of being kind, <br />And bread that's cast on waters fast <br />Comes home again, I find. <br />(Oh love stay near.) <br /> <br />There are such royal souls to know, <br />There is so much to learn, <br />While secrets rest in Nature's breast <br />And unnamed stars still burn. <br />God toiled six days to make this earth, <br />I think the good folks say--- <br />Six lives we need to give full meed <br />Of praise---one for each day, <br />(If love stay near.) <br /> <br />But oh! if love fled far away, <br />Or veiled his face from me, <br />One life too much, why then were such <br />A life as this would be. <br />With sullen May and blighted June <br />Blurred dawn and haggard night, <br />This dear old world in space were hurled <br />If love lent not his light. <br />(Oh love stay near.)<br /><br />Ella Wheeler Wilcox<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/coleur-de-rose/
