Classic and Contemporary Poetry
IN A GARDEN, by LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Pale in the pallid moonlight, white as the rose on her breast Last Line: And he knew that her soul had passed. Alternate Author Name(s): Chandler, Ellen Louise Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening | ||||||||
PALE in the pallid moonlight, White as the rose on her breast, She stood in the fair Rose-garden With her shy young love confessed. The roses climbed to kiss her, The violets, purple and sweet, Breathed their despair in the fragrance That bathed her beautiful feet. She stood there, stately and slender, Gold hair on her shoulders shed, Clothed all in white, like the visions When the living behold the dead. There, with her lover beside her, With life and with love she thrilled -- What mattered the world's wide sorrow To her with her joy fulfilled? Next year, in the fair Rose-garden, He waited, alone and dumb, If perchance from the silent country The soul of the dead would come, To comfort the living and loving With the ghost of a lost delight, And thrill into quivering welcome The desolate, brooding night: Till softly a wind from the distance Began to blow and blow; The moon bent nearer and nearer, And, solemn and sweet and slow, Came a wonderful rapture of music That turned to her voice, at last: Then a cold, soft touch on his forehead, Like the breath of the wind that passed, -- Like the breath of the wind she touched him; Thin was her voice and cold; And something that seemed like a shadow Slipped through his feverish hold: But the voice had said, "I love you, With my first love and my last" -- Then again that wonderful music, And he knew that her soul had passed. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NOVEMBER GARDEN: AN ELEGY by ANDREW HUDGINS AN ENGLISH GARDEN IN AUSTRIA (SEEN AFTER DER ROSENKAVALIER) by RANDALL JARRELL ACROSS THE BROWN RIVER by GALWAY KINNELL A DESERTED GARDEN by GEORGE LAWRENCE ANDREWS NOT THE SWEET CICELY OF GERARDES HERBALL by MARGARET AVISON AN OLD GARDEN by HERBERT BASHFORD A PAINTED FAN by LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON |
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