University of Virginia Library


156

LVI. THE DEATH OF ALL FLOWERS

Now that I see thee, sweet, so very very little,
It is as if the world lacked every blossom-petal.
Bright golden stars abound
And the fair silver moon is full of light, and tender,
And all along the shore the white waves' olden splendour
Breaks, with the same large sound:
The world is full of grace: the summer dawns superber
Even than of old: the wind finds still no hand to curb her
As o'er the hills she flies:—
But, when I see thee not, it is as if all flowers
Lay dead.—All else is here, but bloomless are the bowers;
Like me, they miss the sunlight of thine eyes.