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Arthur Henry Adams - Love And Life.
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I.
AS some faint wisp of fragrance, floating wide —
A pennant-perfume on the evening air —
From a walled garden, flower-filled and fair,
To drape a sudden beauty long denied
Upon life`s highway desolate and dried —
So come you to me, as I, unaware,
Bend my strict eyes upon my pathway bare;
But at your presence straight I turn aside,
And passing in the garden see uncurled
The heart of hidden beauty in the world,
And love as life`s one blossom is revealed.
My backward glance your floating tresses blind,
About my struggling hopes your white arms wind,
And I have yielded — but how sweet to yield!
II.
Yet, in the prison of the garden bound,
The sluggish perfumes o`er my spirit fall,
And I lie languid in their sweetness` thrall,
Beneath the fragrance of much beauty drowned:
When through the fountain`s murmur — lo, a sound
Insistent and reproachful! O`er the wall
Drops a faint echo of the Earth`s deep call,
And I leap upright from the rose-strewn ground.
Outside the bracing wind sings, clean and chill;
Outside are tasks to do, blows to be struck;
And I must toil the dreary highway till
It broadens to the fields of death. Yet, ere
I leave for aye your perfumed close, I pluck
A shrivelled blossom that I kiss and wear.
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