 | Fantasy and Passion |  |
37
WEEDS.
I lean across the sagging gate;
In rough neglect the garden lies,
Disfeatured and disconsolate
Below these halcyon skies.
In rough neglect the garden lies,
Disfeatured and disconsolate
Below these halcyon skies.
O'er pleasant ways once trimly kept,
And blossoming fair at either verge,
Weeds in rank opulence have swept
Their green annulling surge!
And blossoming fair at either verge,
Weeds in rank opulence have swept
Their green annulling surge!
Order's pure wisdom they have crushed,
With reckless feet, in rude disdain.
Like some gross rabble they have rushed
On beauty's bright domain!
With reckless feet, in rude disdain.
Like some gross rabble they have rushed
On beauty's bright domain!
But over them, as though in soft
Memory of bloom that no more blows,
A rose-bush rears one bough aloft,
Starred with one stainless rose!
Memory of bloom that no more blows,
A rose-bush rears one bough aloft,
Starred with one stainless rose!
Above these weeds whose ruffian power
So coarsely envies what is fair,
She bends her lightsome dainty flower
With such patrician air,
So coarsely envies what is fair,
She bends her lightsome dainty flower
With such patrician air,
That while I watch this chaste young rose,
Some pale scared queen she seems to be,
Across whose palace-courtyard flows
The dark mob, like a sea!
Some pale scared queen she seems to be,
Across whose palace-courtyard flows
The dark mob, like a sea!
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