DOWN where the garden grows, Gay as a banner, Spake to her mate the Rose After this manner: -- 'We are the first of flowers, Plain-land or hilly, All reds and whites are ours, Are they not, Lily?' Then to the flowers I spake, -- 'Watch ye my Lady Gone to the leafy brake, Silent and shady; When I am near to her, Lily, she knows; How I am dear to her, Look to it, Rose.' Straightway the Blue-bell stooped, Paler for pride, Down where the Violet drooped, Shy, at her side: -- 'Sweetheart, save me and you, Where has the summer kist Flowers of as fair a hue, -- Turkis or Amethyst?' Therewith I laughed aloud, Spake on this wise, 'O little flowers so proud, Have ye seen eyes Change through the blue in them, -- Change till the mere Loving that grew in them Turned to a tear? 'Flowers, ye are bright of hue, Delicate, sweet; Flowers, and the sight of you Lightens men's feet; Yea, but her worth to me, Flowerets, even, Sweetening the earth to me, Sweeteneth heaven. 'This, then, O Flowers, I sing; God, when He made ye, Made yet a fairer thing Making my Lady; -- Fashioned her tenderly, Giving all weal to her; -- Girdle ye slenderly, Go to her, kneel to her, -- 'Saying, "He sendeth us, He the most dutiful, Meetly he endeth us, Maiden most beautiful! Let us get rest of you, Sweet, in your breast; -- Die, being prest of you, Die, being blest."' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FLIGHT OF LOVE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY ON THE STATUE OF AN ANGEL, BY BIENAIME by WASHINGTON ALLSTON CORSICA by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD DINNER by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON WITH ILLUSTRATION TO GRAY'S POEMS by WILLIAM BLAKE OUR OLD CENTER-TOWN VERMONT MEETINGHOUSE by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY |