The Veiled Prophet (1877)

There's a bower of roses by Bendemeer's stream,
and the nightingale sings round it all the day long,
in the time of my childhood 'twas like a sweet dream
to sit in the roses and hear the bird's song.

That bow'r and its roses I never forget,
but oft when alone in the bloom of the year
I think is the nightingale singing there yet,
are the roses still bright on the calm Bendemeer?

No the roses soon withered that hung o'er the wave,
but some blossoms were gathered while brightly they shone,
and a dew was distilled from their flowers that gave
all the fragrance of summer when summer has gone.

Thus memory draws from delight ere it dies,
an essence that breathes of it many a year,
And bright to my soul as 'twas then to my eyes
is that bower on the banks of the calm Bendemeer!