这是一首拟古的思妇词，但下片的比拟却能多少翻出一些新意来，其温柔敦厚处，尤令人怆然动容。晚唐杜苟鹤《春闺怨》诗：“朝喜花艳春，暮悲花委尘。不悲花落早，悲妾似花身。”杜苟鹤末两句虽未怨天尤人，然犹有怨恨之意。本词却是一味温柔。

《临江仙》 王国维

闻说金微郎戌处，
昨宵梦向金微；
不知今又过辽西：
千屯沙上暗，
万骑月中嘶。
郎似梅花侬似叶，
怯来手抚空枝。
可怜开谢不同时，
漫言花落早，
只是叶生迟。

Tune: "Immortal at the River"

I heard my love was gone on garrison at Chin-wei Mountain (1).
Last night my dream took me there,
Not knowing that he had gone already to Liao-hsi (2),
Where the sky darkens over a thousand camps on the sand
And ten thousand horses neigh beneath the moon.
My love is like a plum blossom and I am the leaf,
But all I can caress is a barren branch.
I mourn that flowers go and leaves bud at different times;
Don't say that flowers fall before their time:
It's only the leaves that grow too late.
(1) In present Mongolia.
(2) Referring to the area from the present Hopei province to the Liaotung peninsula.