Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE YEAR AFTER, by FANNIE STEARNS DAVIS GIFFORD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE YEAR AFTER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Up and down my garden the roses are a-revel
Last Line: -- yet 'tis you, you only, who know their dear lost names!
Alternate Author Name(s): Davis, Fannie Stearns
Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening


UP and down my Garden the roses are a-revel;
Up and down my Garden gleam golden butterflies.
June-scent to the tree-tops floods the white air level,
And June-sun to the rose-roots thrusts fingers warm and wise.

O my red, red roses! my larkspurs and my lilies!
(Yellow lilies leaning in a tangle and a swoon,)
O, have you forgot me? for now the Garden still is,
And no one treads the warm path I knew by night and noon.

Red-rose-petals blowing, and rain-bleached in the grasses, --
Red-rose-petals slipping, slipping to be dead, --
Only wind may touch you: he hurts you as he passes:
O, do you remember who kissed you once instead?

-- Up and down my Garden my Spirit runs a-tiptoe,
Stroking all the roses, chasing butterflies.
But she may not gather one blighted bud. To slip so
Empty from her Garden, blurs her shining eyes.

Spirit! -- Spirit! -- Spirit! --
Home, come home and leave them:
Leave the petals blowing like little weary flames.
Lest your ghostly presence, your pulsing shadow grieve them: --
-- Yet 'tis you, you only, who know their dear lost names!





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