Mild is the Parting Year

Mild is the parting year, and sweet 

The odour of the falling spray;

Life passes on more rudely fleet,

And balmless is its closing day.

I wait its close, I court its gloom,

But mourn that never must there fall

Or on my breast or on my tomb,

The tear that would have soothed it all.

-       Landor[1]

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[1] Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864) was a poet, classicist and essayist. He was born at Ipsley Court, Warwick, the son of a physician. He went to Rugby School then on to Trinity College, Oxford, but was sent down in 1794. The following year he published his first collection, Poems (1795). He lived abroad from 1814, not returning to England until 1835. His strong views and quick temper led him into many disputes and following a potential law suit he spent the remainder of his life, from 1858, on the continent, particularly Florence. He is now remembered more for his prose than his poetry, his best known work being Imaginary conversations of literary men and statesmen (1824-1829), a series of dramatic dialogues. A commemorative plaque to the author is at the church at Bishop's Tachbrook, Warwickshire. (Source: literaryheritage.org.uk)