"O wanton youth, this wind was not Over common highways blown From gardens far from here -- God wot! It has caught that plaintive tone. Listen! But ah! It touches you not! Listen! But ah! I had forgot -- The heart of youth is stone. "Did you not know such places were? Lovely are they and few, The gardens that breathe such perfumed air! Listen! But what care you? Over many a moon-lit terraced spot It has come to claim its own. Over Marjoram and Melilot, Over London Pride and Bergamot, It has come to trouble, doubt it not, All hearts save those of stone!" -- "I like not this breath in the swaying grasses! I like not that shadow on the rustling trees! I @3suspect@1 that wind as it softly passes Back to its garden of memories! Your walled-up pansies are faded and sere; Your dark parterres of cypress-green Make the very lizards listen in fear Of phantom footsteps and forms unseen. Your fountains are choked with hemlock weeds, The toad croaks there and the night-owls call. There are wandering dandelion-seeds Where red rose-petals were wont to fall! Oh woe-begone one, you can tempt me not With your proud sad gardens, your wind that sighs, Your Mignonette and your Melilot! The heart of youth is wise." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE MIDNIGHT SKATERS by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE POET AND HIS BOOK by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY THE CENCI; A TRAGEDY: ACTS 4-5 by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY MARE LIBERUM by HENRY VAN DYKE THE FROGS: AN 'AESCHYLEAN' CHORUS by ARISTOPHANES HAPPINESS THROUGH THE YEAR by J. MARGARET CRUTE ASHCRAFT |