Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FORMAL GARDEN, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FORMAL GARDEN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Beyond its dignified border
Last Line: Set in the wildwood of joy.
Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening


Beyond its dignified border
Stretches the wildwood away;
Tangles of happy disorder,
Freely, triumphantly gay.

Here in a peace that is pleasant,
Studious, toilsomely fair,
Severe as a scholarly peasant,
Lies my Garden of Care.

Reaches of turf well watered,
Breath of a stately perfume;
Squares conscientiously quartered,
Ranked in regiment bloom;

Files of lilies and roses,
Bands of dahlia and phlox;
Hidden and intricate closes
Bound in a framework of box;

Walks with never a curving,
Juniper soldierly trim,
Modest air of deserving,
Smiling, and quiet, -- and grim.

Who but must feel the calm gladness
Here holding militant sway?
And who could fail of the madness
To long to leap forth and away?

Ever I've toiled in its beauty
Since the bright years of a boy;
This difficult Garden of Duty,
Set in the Wildwood of Joy.





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