What is beauty ? but a flower!

What is beauty? but a flower!
Early victim of decay,
That the moment of an hour
Either gives or takes away.

Like the sunbeam on the fountain
Where its light hath dancing shone,
Like the roebuck on the mountain
Here a moment, past and gone!

Tho' the sunbeam should be shaded
Softly still the night wave heaves,
Tho' the rose's hue be faded
Fragrance hangs around its leaves;

So tho' beauty's bloom may perish,
Tho' its earth-born glory dies,
Souls when born from heav'n will cherish
Brighter blossoms for the skies.

Where the summer shower steeping
May have stain'd the leaf's bright glow,
There the winter tempests sweeping
Might have laid the flow'ret low.

Where a God of wrath reproving
Might have humbled to the grave,
There a God of mercy loving
Only wounds that He may save.

Thus the heav'nly Hand that guides us
Bears us thro' the trying blast;
Or some shelter'd calm provides us
'Till the gathering storm be past.