Explore "Memory's River" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
In Nature's bright blossoms not always reposes / That strange subtle essence more rare than their bloom, / Which lies in the hearts of carnations and roses, / That unexplained something by men called perfume. / Though modest the flower, yet great is its power / And pregnant with meaning each pistil and leaf, / If only it hides there, if only abides there, / The fragrance suggestive of love, joy, and grief.
Not always the air that a master composes / Can stir human heart-strings with pleasure or pain. / But strange, subtle chords, like the scent of the roses, / Breathe out of some measures, though simple the strain. / And lo! when you hear them, you love them and fear them, / You tremble with anguish, you thrill with delight, / For back of them slumber old dreams without number, / And faces long vanished peer out into sight.