I have just been learning the lesson of life,
The sad, sad lesson of loving,
And all of its power for pleasure and pain
Been slowly, sadly proving;
And all that is left of the bright, bright dream,
With its thousand brilliant phases,
Is a handful of dust in a coffin hid—
A coffin under the daisies;
The beautiful, beautiful daisies,
The snowy, snowy daisies.

And thus forever throughout the world
Is love a sorrow proving;
There’s many a sad, sad thing in life,
But the saddest of all is loving.
Life often divides far wider than death;
Stern fortune the high wall raises;
But better far than two hearts estranged
Is a low grave starred with daisies;
The beautiful, beautiful daisies,
The snowy, snowy daisies.

And so I am glad that we lived as we did,
Through the summer of love together,
And that one of us, wearied, lay down to rest,
Ere the coming of winter weather;
For the sadness of love is love grown cold,
And ’tis one of its surest phases;
So I bless my God, with a breaking heart,
For that grave ensnared with daisies;
The beautiful, beautiful daisies,
The snowy, snowy daisies.

Hattie Tyng Griswold
New York Home Journal
Circa 1863