THE door was shut. I looked between Its iron bars; and saw it lie, My garden, mine, beneath the sky, Pied with all flowers bedewed and green. From bough to bough the song-birds crossed, From flower to flower the moths and bees: With all its nests and stately trees It had been mine, and it was lost. A shadowless spirit kept the gate, Blank and unchanging like the grave. I, peering through, said; 'Let me have Some buds to cheer my outcast state.' He answered not. 'Or give me, then, But one small twig from shrub or tree; And bid my home remember me Until I come to it again.' The spirit was silent; but he took Mortar and stone to build a wall; He left no loophole great or small Through which my straining eyes might look. So now I sit here quite alone, Blinded with tears; nor grieve for that, For nought is left worth looking at Since my delightful land is gone. A violet bed is budding near, Wherein a lark has made her nest; And good they are, but not the best; And dear they are, but not so dear. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOKEN AT A CASTLE GATE by DONALD (GRADY) DAVIDSON GETHSEMANE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SONNET: INSCRIPTION FOR A PORTRAIT OF DANTE by GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO LAUS INFANTIUM by WILLIAM CANTON MONNA INNOMINATA, A SONNET OF SONNETS: 5 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI FESTE'S SONG (2), FR. TWELFTH NIGHT by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE |