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A Dedication. To Charlotte Cushman.

By Sidney Lanier

Topics: classic

As Love will carve dear names upon a tree,     Symbol of gravure on his heart to be,     So thought I thine with loving text to set     In the growth and substance of my canzonet;     But, writing it, my tears begin to fall -     This wild-rose stem for thy large name's too small!     Nay, still my trembling hands are fain, are fain     Cut the good letters though they lap again;     Perchance such folk as mark the blur and stain     Will say, `It was the beating of the rain;'     Or, haply these o'er-woundings of the stem     May loose some little balm, to plead for them.     1876.

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"As Love will carve dear names upon a tree,..."

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Author:Sidney Lanier

"As Love will carve dear names upon a tree,..." by Sidney Lanier

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Sidney Lanier

About Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier (1842–1881) was an American poet and musician whose poems—including "The Marshes of Glynn" and "Song of the Chattahoochee"—are known for their musical quality and celebration of the Southern landscape.

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