 | Romance and revery |  |
54
THE WORM.
Where garden pathways glimmer blithe
And bees go singing, one by one,
I watch your clammy coldness writhe,
In headless hatred of the sun.
And bees go singing, one by one,
I watch your clammy coldness writhe,
In headless hatred of the sun.
Perchance with strange and mute appeal
You question fate's capricious powers,
That harshly doom your frame to feel
This long breeze trembling through the flowers.
You question fate's capricious powers,
That harshly doom your frame to feel
This long breeze trembling through the flowers.
Perchance you hold as dreary thrall
This freedom, sweet with summer light,
And pine once more to loll and crawl
In quietudes of earthy night.
This freedom, sweet with summer light,
And pine once more to loll and crawl
In quietudes of earthy night.
Or yet, perchance, you loathe the dews
That flash in brilliance here above,
But thrill to dream of how they ooze
Through mouldy fathoms that you love.
That flash in brilliance here above,
But thrill to dream of how they ooze
Through mouldy fathoms that you love.
55
Or where the lilies break from soil,
With taintless chalices of bloom,
Perchance you yearn to see them coil
Damp snaky roots amid the gloom.
With taintless chalices of bloom,
Perchance you yearn to see them coil
Damp snaky roots amid the gloom.
Ah, well! Few men with equal sight
Can read the riddle of life's term,
And that which I may hail as light
Looks darkness to my brother worm.
Can read the riddle of life's term,
And that which I may hail as light
Looks darkness to my brother worm.
So, dismal burrower, hidden be
Once more within your realm forlorn;
Grope dumbly down, and leave to me
The balmy lilies bathed in morn!
Once more within your realm forlorn;
Grope dumbly down, and leave to me
The balmy lilies bathed in morn!
| Romance and revery | |