 | City Poems |  |
“Ah, must I buy your favours? Then I'll let
You place the fairest rose of all your wreath
Amid my hair.”
You place the fairest rose of all your wreath
Amid my hair.”
“Where it will deeper glow
With pride, than when it sat upon its stem,
And drank ambrosial air.”
With pride, than when it sat upon its stem,
And drank ambrosial air.”
“Thou mocker!”
As I went,
She laughed and called me back.—“True flowers, you know;
Not those pale moonlight things that grow so thick
In gardens of your dreams; which might be given
By ghost to ghost, in some serene farewell,
For a love-token and remembrancer
To look on in the shades. True flowers I want
To blush in mortal hair.” I left her light,
As happy as a serf who leaves his king
Ennobled, and possessed of broader lands
Than the great rain-cloud trailing from the fens
Can blacken with his shadow.
She laughed and called me back.—“True flowers, you know;
Not those pale moonlight things that grow so thick
136
By ghost to ghost, in some serene farewell,
For a love-token and remembrancer
To look on in the shades. True flowers I want
To blush in mortal hair.” I left her light,
As happy as a serf who leaves his king
Ennobled, and possessed of broader lands
Than the great rain-cloud trailing from the fens
Can blacken with his shadow.
| City Poems | |