IN this irised net I keep All the moth-winged winds of sleep, In this basket woven of willow I have silk-weed for your pillow. In this pouch of plaited reeds Stars I bear for silver beads. Choose my pippins for your money, Reddening pears as smooth as honey, Golden grapes and apricots, Herbs from well-grown garden plots; Basil, balm, and savoury, All sweet-smelling things there be, Fruits a many and flowers a few, Fiery dahlias drooped in dew, Wood-grown asters faint as smoke, Flame of maple, frond of oak. In this box of foreign woods I have delicate woven goods; Orient laces light as mist, Amber veils and amethyst, Ivory pins like hardened milk, Cloaks of silver-shining silk Wrought with strange embroideries Of peacock plumes and rose-berries. Buy a king's crown lost of old, Dark with sardius sunk in gold. Buy my gloves of spiders spun, Cool as water, warm as sun; Buy my shoon of yellow leathers Lined with fur and owlet feathers; Buy a chain of emerald stones Or scarlet seeds or cedar cones. All sweet, delicate things there be Honest folk may buy of me. Ere the earliest thrush has flown In my eyes the dawns are shown. On my lips the summer lingers, Rain has jewelled all my fingers; In my hand the crickets sing, And the moon's my golden ring. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BROTHERHOOD (2) by EDWIN MARKHAM SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: TOM MERRITT by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER, FR. SONGS OF INNOCENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE TO THE VIRGINIAN VOYAGE [1611] by MICHAEL DRAYTON SIXTY-EIGHTH BIRTHDAY by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL A CANADIAN BOAT SONG; WRITTEN ON THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE by THOMAS MOORE THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 52. WILLOWWOOD (4) by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI THE MORAL FABLES: THE FOX, THE WOLF, AND THE CADGER by AESOP THE LETTER; EDWARD ROWLAND SILL, DIED FEBRUARY 27, 1887 by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |