SCRoots, STANZAS

STANZAS
by William Allen

When flowers are blooming fairest,
When gems are richest, rarest,
When every sound thou hearest,
   Hath music in its tone:

When joy is circling o'er thee,
When every form before thee
Beholds, but to adore thee,
   And make thy wish his own;
Think, that those tones will grieve thee
Those gems, those flowers, will leave thee,
Those friends will yet deceive thee,
   And thou wilt be-alone.

But when sad hours are nigh thee,
When summer friends pass by thee,
When every joy shall fly thee,
   That late thy footsteps led;
When memory, in sadness,
Reverts to days of gladness,
And stings thee even to madness,
   By whispering-they are fled;
When thy soul's night hath no morrow-
From a thought that now is sorrow,
A balm thou then may'st borrow-
   "These are not with the dead."

William Allen was a resident of Charleston, South Carolina. According to William Gilmore Simms, Allen's newspaper articles were very numerous. Specimens of his verse were to be found in the files of the "Courier" circa 1824. He wrote under the pseudonyms J.A.O., Rinaldo, St. Eustace, and others. He was the author of more than one unpublished novel. Allen died at an early age at Haddrill's Point near Charleston.

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