第32章 THE SPELL OF THE ROSE

"I mean to build a hall anon, And shape two turrets there, And a broad newelled stair, And a cool well for crystal water;

Yes; I will build a hall anon, Plant roses love shall feed upon, And apple trees and pear."

He set to build the manor-hall, And shaped the turrets there, And the broad newelled stair, And the cool well for crystal water;

He built for me that manor-hall, And planted many trees withal, But no rose anywhere.

And as he planted never a rose That bears the flower of love, Though other flowers throve A frost-wind moved our souls to sever Since he had planted never a rose;

And misconceits raised horrid shows, And agonies came thereof.

"I'll mend these miseries," then said I, And so, at dead of night, I went and, screened from sight, That nought should keep our souls in severance, I set a rose-bush. "This," said I, "May end divisions dire and wry, And long-drawn days of blight."

But I was called from earth--yea, called Before my rose-bush grew;

And would that now I knew What feels he of the tree I planted, And whether, after I was called To be a ghost, he, as of old, Gave me his heart anew!

Perhaps now blooms that queen of trees I set but saw not grow, And he, beside its glow -

Eyes couched of the mis-vision that blurred me -

Ay, there beside that queen of trees He sees me as I was, though sees Too late to tell me so!