A sweet, acidulous, down-reaching thrill Pervades my sense. I seem to see or hear The lushy garden-grounds of Greenwich Hill In autumn, where the crispy leaves are sere; And odors haunt me of remotest spice From the Levant or musky-aired Cathay, Or from the saffron-fields of Jericho, Where everything is nice. The more I sniff, the more I swoon away, And what else mortal palate craves, forego. Odors unsmelled are keen, but those I smell Are keener; wherefore let me sniff again! Enticing walnuts, I have known ye well In youth, when pickles were passing pain; Unwitting youth, that craves the candy stem, And sugar plums to olives doth prefer, And even licks the pots of marmalade When sweetness clings to them. But now I dream of ambergris and myrrh, Tasting these walnuts in the poplar shade. Lo! hoarded coolness in the heart of noon, Plucked with its dew, the cucumber is here, As to the Dryad's parching lips a boon, And crescent bean-pods, unto Bacchus dear; And, last of all, the pepper's pungent globe, The scarlet dwelling of the sylph of fire, Provoking purple draughts; and, surfeited, I cast my trailing robe O'er my pale feet, touch up my tuneless lyre, And twist the Delphic wreath to suit my head. Here shall my tongue in otherwise be soured Than fretful men's in parched and palsied days; And, by the mid-May's dusky leaves embowered, Forget the fruitful blame, the scanty praise. No sweets to them who sweet themselves were born, Whose natures ooze with lucent saccharine; Who, with sad repetition soothly cloyed, The lemon-tinted morn Enjoy, and find acetic twilight fine. Wake I, or sleep? The pickle-jar is void. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...STANZAS IN MEMORY OF THE AUTHOR OF OBERMANN by MATTHEW ARNOLD ON MY JOYFUL DEPARTURE FROM THE CITY OF COLOGNE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE A LOVE SONG by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN; ON THE CENTOTAPH IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY by ALFRED TENNYSON THE SON; SOUTHERN OHIO MARKET TOWN by FREDERICK RIDGELY TORRENCE |