 | English Roses |  |
LOVE IN IDLENESS.
Bright the water-way went down,
With a laughing and a lisping
Through the reeds that nodded crisping,
Past the trouble of the town;
Past the leaden smoke and smother,
Where to man no man is brother,
In the torment of the strain;
Past the red kine in the shallow,
And the poppies of the plain;
By the meadow grass and mallow—
There, in white and pink undress,
Lay sweet Love-in-Idleness.
With a laughing and a lisping
Through the reeds that nodded crisping,
Past the trouble of the town;
Past the leaden smoke and smother,
Where to man no man is brother,
In the torment of the strain;
Past the red kine in the shallow,
And the poppies of the plain;
By the meadow grass and mallow—
There, in white and pink undress,
Lay sweet Love-in-Idleness.
In a lily cup she lay,
'Tween the shadow and the shiver
Of the ripple on the river,
Where the sunshine fell in spray;
Half in gloom and half in gleaming,
Not asleep and yet a-dreaming
Of the life of long-ago;
And her pretty lips were pouted,
As she saw her grace below;
Which was picture oft she doubted,
Which (as soft as a caress)
Was sweet Love-in-idleness.
'Tween the shadow and the shiver
Of the ripple on the river,
Where the sunshine fell in spray;
Half in gloom and half in gleaming,
Not asleep and yet a-dreaming
Of the life of long-ago;
And her pretty lips were pouted,
As she saw her grace below;
Which was picture oft she doubted,
Which (as soft as a caress)
Was sweet Love-in-idleness.
| English Roses | |