Explore "Autumn Violets" by Christina Georgina Rossetti on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Keep love for youth, and violets for the spring: / Or if these bloom when worn-out autumn grieves, / Let them lie hid in double shade of leaves, / Their own, and others dropped down withering; / For violets suit when home birds build and sing, / Not when the outbound bird a passage cleaves; / Not with dry stubble of mown harvest sheaves, / But when the green world buds to blossoming. / Keep violets for the spring, and love for youth, / Love that should dwell with beauty, mirth, and hope: / Or if a later sadder love be born, / Let this not look for grace beyond its scope, / But give itself, nor plead for answering truth -- / A grateful Ruth tho' gleaning scanty corn.