ROSA IGNOTA
II
THE GARDEN
Because of the gray dreams
In the garden of yellow roses,
A thrill of the quiet streams
In the garden of lost delight :
Ah! youth, so slim and white,
The one sure blossom uncloses:
When thou art lying still and dead, it blooms in the heart of
the night.
Shattered the golden sword in the great bronze hands of the
old
Hermaphrodite of the ages |
O youth, so sad and wise,
Shattered the strong hilt lies;
The great bronze god for wages
Has a hilt of gold, and eyes of gold,
Beneath the sunless skies.
Yet it were well to have been
Idle and young and tender,
Ignorantly and idly wise, disdainful in the dawn,
Sweetest of all the green
And gold that the gods surrender
Of the sweet dead times that have seen
The marriage of nymph with faun.
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