Ernest Rhys

I SAW the sunlight in a leafy place

Bathing itself in liquid green and amber,

Where every flower had tears hid in its petals,

And every leaf was lovely with the rain.

With wondering eyes I saw how leaf and flower

Held up their hands, and trembled with delight,

While on the gleaming bough the alighting bird

Shook its wet wings like something fresh from heaven.

And when it sang, it told how earth to heaven

Was turned; and how the miracle of morning

Had made of leaf and flower a deathless maiden

To be my mate and teach eternity.

She took my hand: I understood each thing

The leaf says to the flower when, both adoring,

See like themselves, leaf-shaped and flower-painted,

The sun descend, to bathe in painted shade.

She led me out—we left the leafy croft,

And its wet fragrance, for the treeless town;

But she picked up a dead leaf in the mud,

And she found flowers in the children’s hair.

Then she was gone—and I am seeking her:

And every time at evening when it rains,

And every time at morning, when the sun

Bathes in the beauty of that leafy place,

Or when he looks into an urchin’s eyes

To see if April tears or smiles are there,

And the wet dust scents summer leagues away,

I hold my breath—the Eternal Maid returns.