tT IN PRAISE OF GARDENS tT 



Shone smiling to Heaven, and every one 

 Shared joy in the light of the gentle sun; 



For each one was interpenetrated 



With the light and the odour its neighbour shed, 



Like young lovers whom youth and love made 



dear 



Wrapped and rilled by their mutual atmosphere. 

 ***** 



There was a Power in this sweet place, 



An Eve in this Eden; a ruling grace 



Which to the flowers did they waken or dream, 



Was as God is to the starry scheme, 



A Lady, the wonder of her kind, 

 Whose form was upborne by a lovely mind 

 Which, dilating, had moulded her mien and mo- 

 tion 

 Like a sea-flower unfolded beneath the ocean, 



Tended the garden from morn to even: 

 And the meteors of that sublunar heaven, 

 Like the lamps of the air when night walks forth, 

 Laughed round her footsteps up from the Earth! 



***** 



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