 | The Silence of Love |  |
TO OXFORD
“Queen of romance!” whose charm hath witched awayThe numbing spell that held my life in thrall,
Is it not meet that on this vernal day
These wafted blossoms at thy feet should fall?
Absence from thee was winter to my heart:
Leafless I stood 'neath leaden, frosty skies:
Bleak were the winds that blew my boughs apart:
And still the sap delayed and could not rise.
But thy dear presence is perennial spring:
And, to thy side restored, from every root
I feel the rising life-stream throb and sting
And tingle into leaf and flower and fruit.
So, since thy love begot them, do not scorn
To wear these tokens of a life re-born.
| The Silence of Love | |