 | Studies in verse (1865) |  |
And to increase her evil days there grew
A trouble touching Agnes, her meek child,
Who never gave her troubled thought before.
For so it chanced a rustic flower-show near
Had drawn their steps; where, in a steamy booth
Of low hot canvas, ranged elaborate rows
Of painful dahlias blown by line and rule,
And petall'd to a hair's-breadth intricate:
Where pear and pippin, bean and cauliflower,
Turnip and melon, herb and artichoke,
As Mieris drew them, spread from door to door.
And all the place smelt hot of trodden grass,
And a band throbbed outside at intervals.
Here as they walked they came on Edward Mayne,
Son of a wealthy neighbour baronet:
Successful too at college lately, he,
All things to all men, smoothly affable,
Could turn his hand to anything he chose,
Scan a Greek chorus or break in a horse.
But evil tales were current in the shire
Against him: and the mother's instinct feared
Seeing his eyes on Agnes: and the girl
Flushed at his notice not displeased, as he
Found pretext in the pushing of the crowd
To do some service and to speak some words,
Trivial enough, if he meant nothing more.
But Agnes met him afterwards by chance,
By chance she thought it, in the maple lane
A furlong from her threshold: the low sun
Full in her face: a gloom of woods beyond,
And glistenings on the pasture and the cloud.
A trouble touching Agnes, her meek child,
Who never gave her troubled thought before.
For so it chanced a rustic flower-show near
Had drawn their steps; where, in a steamy booth
Of low hot canvas, ranged elaborate rows
Of painful dahlias blown by line and rule,
And petall'd to a hair's-breadth intricate:
Where pear and pippin, bean and cauliflower,
Turnip and melon, herb and artichoke,
As Mieris drew them, spread from door to door.
And all the place smelt hot of trodden grass,
39
Here as they walked they came on Edward Mayne,
Son of a wealthy neighbour baronet:
Successful too at college lately, he,
All things to all men, smoothly affable,
Could turn his hand to anything he chose,
Scan a Greek chorus or break in a horse.
But evil tales were current in the shire
Against him: and the mother's instinct feared
Seeing his eyes on Agnes: and the girl
Flushed at his notice not displeased, as he
Found pretext in the pushing of the crowd
To do some service and to speak some words,
Trivial enough, if he meant nothing more.
But Agnes met him afterwards by chance,
By chance she thought it, in the maple lane
A furlong from her threshold: the low sun
Full in her face: a gloom of woods beyond,
And glistenings on the pasture and the cloud.
| Studies in verse (1865) | |