VII.
THE LIFE OF FLOWERS.
1
“I would, dear Love! that I thy convert were
To that strange lore—‘The fair flowers dream and feel,
Are glad and woful, fond and scornful are;
And mutely conscious how the unresting wheel
Of Time revolveth, and doth hourly steal
Their beauty, and the heart-companionship
Of their nectarious kindred, that reveal
Their souls to sunlight, and with fragrant lip
Drink the abundant dews that from God's eyelids drip.’
2
“But then, I never dare another cull,
To crush its being, and for ever end
Its commune with its fellows beautiful:
Ah! no; presence and absence never blend
A consciousness about them; or to rend
Love from lover, in their early wooing,
When even the rainbow their dew'd eyes transcend;
For our adornment merely—oh! 'twere doing
Sweet creatures bitter wrong, with our worst woes induing.
3
“At least, for conscience' sake, I'll not believe
That they are sensible to hearted feeling;
For in no creature's being would I weave
Those griefs which even now I am revealing
In tears and sighs, from lips and eyelids stealing—
Sad rain and wind of my heart's laden cloud!—
By which, if they do feel, with wounds unhealing
Their parted spirits must be cleft and bow'd,
Till they grew pale and sere, and wore Death's common shroud.”
4
Then—to the lover's and the poet's warning
Attend! as to a Delphic oracle:
When flowers into the grey eyes of the Morning
Peer, in awaken'd beauty, from Night's cell;
On the warm heart of Noontide when they dwell;
Or close in loveliness at Twilight's feet—
They have their thoughts and dreams; and thou dost quell
A gentle spirit in each blossom sweet
(Which its love-conscious mates for ever pine to greet—
5
And pine in vain!) which thy small hand doth sunder
From its green birth-place!—Art of those that sleep
In common thought, to whom there is no wonder
In all the Universe sublime and deep—
Invisible and visible! There weep
Dews of a Morning round us, which must break,
And unveil all things o'er which darkly sweep
The night-shades of our ignorance. Awake!
And in this creed believe—for Love's, if not Truth's sake.
