The Face we choose to miss－
Be it but for a Day
As absent as a Hundred Years,
When it has rode away.
Be it but for a Day
As absent as a Hundred Years,
When it has rode away.
(F.1293/J.1141)
[1] Face:: face of a flower.
[3] a Hundred Years:: a century, a hint on the century-plant, agave or American aloe.
[2-3] a Day, a Hundred Years:: long in waiting and short in blooming.
[4] rode away:: withered.
The effect of flowering upon the longevity of the individual is strikingly shown by the Agave, or Century-plant,－so called because it flowers in our conservatories only after the lapse of a hundred, or at lease a great number of years; although in its native sultry climate, it generally flowers when five or six years old. ─ Introduction to Structural and Systematic Botany (1871)