| |
| 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 | 5 |
| 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 | 10 |
| 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, | 15 |
| 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. | 20 |
| |
| 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 | 25 |
| 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. | |
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