There bloomed by my cottage door
A rose with a heart scented sweet,
O so lovely and fair that I plucked it one day,
Laid it over my own heart's quick beat.
In a moment its petals were shed:
Just a tiny white mound at my feet.

There flew through my casements low
A linnet who richly could sing.
Sang so thrillingly sweet I could not let it go
But must cage it, the glad, pretty thing.
But it died in the cage I had made,
Not a note to my chamber would bring.

There came to my lonely soul
A friend I had waited for long,
And the deep chilly silence lay stricken and dead,
Pierc'd to death by our love and our song.
And I thought on the bird and the flow'r
And my soul in its knowledge grew strong.

Go out when thou wilt, O friend; --
Sing thy song, roam the world glad and free ;
By the holding I lose; by the giving I gain,
And the gods cannot take thee from me ;
For a song and a scent on the wind
Shall drift in through the doorway from thee.