A Bed of Forget-me-nots

Is Love so prone to change and rot
We are fain to rear Forget-me-not
By measure in a garden-plot? --

I love its growth at large and free
By untrod path and unlopped tree,
Or nodding by the unpruned hedge,

Or on the water's dangerous edge
Where flags and meadowsweet blow rank
With rushes on the quaking bank.

Love is not taught in learning's school,
Love is not parcelled out by rule:
Hath curb or call an answer got? --

So free must be Forget-me-not.
Give me the flame no dampness dulls,
The passion of the instinctive pulse,

Love steadfast as a fixed star,
Tender as doves with nestlings are.
More large than time, more strong than death

This all creation travails of --
She groans not for a passing breath --
This is Forget-me-not and Love.