And the bees and the birds and the butterflies thought
’Twas the one perfect day ever fashioned by fate,
Nor dreamed the sweet wonder for us two was wrought.
I loitered beside you the whole summer long,
I gave you a life from the waste-flow of mine;
And whether you babbled or crooned me a song,
I listened and looked till my pulses ran wine.
’Twas but shutting my eyes; I could see, I could hear,
How you danced there, my nautch-girl, ’mid flag-root and fern,
While the flashing tomauns tinkled joyous and clear