Dirge for Aoine and other poems by Nora Chesson [i.e. Nora Hopper] |
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| X. | LOVE'S SINGER. X. Southernwood
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 | Dirge for Aoine and other poems |  |
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LOVE'S SINGER. X. Southernwood
So I have harvested my womanhood
Into one tall green bush of southernwood;
And if the leaves are green about your feet,
And if my fragrance on a day should meet
And brace your weariness, why, not in vain
Shall I have husbanded from sun and rain
My spices if you chance to find them sweet.
Into one tall green bush of southernwood;
And if the leaves are green about your feet,
And if my fragrance on a day should meet
And brace your weariness, why, not in vain
Shall I have husbanded from sun and rain
My spices if you chance to find them sweet.
I have grown up beneath the sheltering shade
Of roses: roses' poignant scents have made
My sharp spice sweeter than 't was wont to be.
Therefore if any vagrant gather me
And wear me in his bosom, I will give
Him dreams of roses; he shall dream and live,
And wake to find the rose a verity.
Of roses: roses' poignant scents have made
My sharp spice sweeter than 't was wont to be.
Therefore if any vagrant gather me
And wear me in his bosom, I will give
Him dreams of roses; he shall dream and live,
And wake to find the rose a verity.
Gather me, gather. I have dreams to sell.
The sea is not by any fluted shell
More faithfully remembered than I keep
My thought of roses, through beguiling sleep
And the bewildering day. I 'll give to him
Who gathers me more sweetness than he 'd dream
Without me—more than any lily could;
I that am flowerless, being southernwood.
The sea is not by any fluted shell
More faithfully remembered than I keep
My thought of roses, through beguiling sleep
And the bewildering day. I 'll give to him
Who gathers me more sweetness than he 'd dream
Without me—more than any lily could;
I that am flowerless, being southernwood.
| Dirge for Aoine and other poems | |