– 53 –

Verdure

Do you remember, Ruth, in the years of our immaturity,
How you loved to be surrounded by green ornamentations?
You would applaud in my garden now the green environment
That tenderly encompasses its bright blooming denizens.

But for the gem-green setting of this florid jewellery,
Green of jade, emerald, aquamarine, chrysoberyl,
But for the intermediate lawns and plotted plain green spaces,
The soft greensward springing night and day continuously,
Leafage of lemon, myrtle, rosemary, and mimosa,
Cypress-green shades of the high microcarpa hedges,
And the tall boundary trees’ bronze and viridian boughs—

But for all these I should have, not a pleasaunce, not a garden,
But a heterogeneous botanical display.