IN PRAISE OF GARDENS 



To see them with my very sight, 

 And touch and handle and attain: 

 To have all heaven beneath my feet 



For narrow way that once they trod; 

 To have my part with all the saints, 



And with my God. 



CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI. 



Garden Fairies 



Keen was the air, the sky was very light, 



Soft with shed snow my garden was, and white, 



And walking there, I heard upon the night 



Sudden sound of little voices, 



Just the prettiest of noises. 



It was the strangest, subtlest, sweetest sound: 

 It seem'd above me, seem'd upon the ground. 

 Then swiftly seem'd to eddy round and round, 



Till I said : " To-night the air is 



Surely full of garden fairies." 



And all at once it seem'd I grew aware 

 That little, shining presences were there, 



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