Bird Love--Rose Love

If you were but a rose--dear love--
And I your bird, with dip of wing
To tell a promise of the Spring
And with a golden swift caress
My happy careless love confess,
No pain such gentle vows could bring,
No tears should stay my flight above,
If you were but a rose--dear love.

Bird-love, rose-love, to last the day
Why shall not we whose hearts are light
Put by the coming of the night,
Catch glints of rapture from the sky,
The scents that swing where lilies lie,
And ring them to a garland white
To ease the pain of life away?
Bird-love, rose-love, to last the day!