Excerpt from The Guarding of a Goddess: And Other Poems The Guarding of a Goddess Dedicated To my Mother and Sisters How oft, when I have watched a lovely flowerSpring from the sweet earth upward to the sun, I've grieved to kw that it so soon must wither, When for a brief space, in triumphant glory, It has enriched the world with the bright gazeOf its fair eyes. Oh! it is sad to kwThe lovely only comes to go again.'Tis sad to kw - I shrink from breathing it, But I will face the truth: face it with me -That those fair things I love so much to watch, That those bewitching things at last must go -Must one by one be rest from thee. The beautyOf thy fair body must leave thee like a dream.They all must go, those things I love so much -That lissom form, free as the mountain roe;Those eyes, where some shy wild thing seems to lurkIn their deep shade, sooner seen than lost, But once seen ne'er forgotten; those sweet lips, Which, curving upwards in a mischievous smile, Must melt mans heart to tears unless it beHard as a stone. Oh, I could watch all dayThe ripples as they play about thy mouth, About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art techlogy to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.