Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume II. Love. 1904. | | | | II. Love’s Nature | | Perfume | | Sir Edmund William Gosse (1849–1928) |
| | | WHAT gift for passionate lovers shall we find? | |
| Not flowers nor books of verse suffice for me, | |
| Nor splinters of the odorous cedar-tree, | |
| And tufts of pine-buds, oozy in the wind; | |
| Give me young shoots of aromatic rind, | 5 |
| Or samphire, redolent of sand and sea, | |
| For all such fragrances I deem to be | |
| Fit with my sharp desire to be combined. | |
| My heart is like a poet, whose one room, | |
| Scented with Latakia faint and fine, | 10 |
| Dried rose-leaves, and spilt attar, and old wine, | |
| From curtained windows gathers its warm gloom | |
| Round all but one sweet picture where incline | |
| His thoughts and fancies mingled with perfume. | | | | |
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