Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SWEET OATH IN MALLORCA by JOHN GALSWORTHY

First Line: IF YOU HAD, SUDDENLY, BEEN WHERE I'VE BEEN
Last Line: THEN HAD YOU SWORN THE SAME SWEET OATH AS I!
Subject(s): GARDENS & GARDENING; MALLORCA; MAJORCA;

IF you had, suddenly, been where I've been,
Under the sun among the almond flowers,
If you had dreamed and seen what I have seen --
The old grey olives and the old grey towers;
If, in bewilderment there had come to you
Over the hills, beneath the evening star,
The tinkling of the sheepbells, or the blue
Gleaming from where the happy wild flowers are;
If you'd been wafted to that fairy-land,
And in delight been lost and lost again,
And, walking with me, waved a friendly hand
To children smiling with the eyes of Spain;
And in full day beheld the young moon fly --
Then had you sworn the same sweet oath as I!



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