The flush of pink amid shades of green,
Is like a wreath for a June-day bride,
Its crown is decked with a lustrous sheen,
Yet it has gloom where the fairies hide,
For this is midsummer’s perfect eve,
When minds are roving on fancy’s wing,
When hearts are young and all things believe,
And childhood’s gladness from long since bring.
A rare creation, a gift divine,
This rosebush is in my garden nook,
Whose beauty all of the sacred Nine
Would fancy more than the wisest book,
For not a poet in any age
Did joyful loveliness e’er express
Like that which lolls round the unseen mage,
So perfect, charming, and effortless.
It stands apart from the world of woe,
An yet has balm for the troubled mind,
An holy altar where one may know
The joy of beauty, and solace find,
Since God is there as in days of eld,
When Moses heard Him ’mid flaming thorn,
(For I have always in secret held,
That bush had also its roses borne.)
From crowds pretentious and gibbering,
I turn oppressed to this holy place,
Instead of clamor, the thrushes sing,
Instead of crudeness, the perfect grace;
My soul is free, as I bend to kiss
The smiling rose, whose enchanting breath
Fills all my being with such a bliss,
That I could wish it the sting of death.
TWO ASPECTS
There’s a golden light on one side of the tree,
On the other there is a shadow,
The shadowy side goes out to me,
The other runs down to the meadow,
And the light is beckoning me away
To the leas and fields of new-mown hay,
Beckoning out from the shadow.
There’s a shadowyness on one side of the tree,
On the other a golden light,
And the shadowy side is inviting me
To rest in its sweet delight,
For the porches are wide, and the ladies are fair,
And the heat of the sun is not striking there,—
And I stand at the tree in a plight.
THE GREAT “I AM”
Thou art, and there is nought besides Thee!
Man’s myriad errors in thought and striving,
Seen and unseen, are not of Thee!
They are not,—
But self-eliminating,—
Since Thou alone art Truth and Love.
What is of man’s finiteness
Is nothing in Thy Everlastingness;—
He only is; That only is,
Which is a part of Thee in mind or matter!