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Themes and Variations
IN A GARDEN—VICTORIA.
I.
The Elm has caught the torch of Spring
And passed it to the lime,
The hedgerow waits, a thorny ring,
Brawn as in winter time.
And bare, beside the almond tree,
My vine-wrought citadel,
Where Summer globes, for you and me,
Her amber muscatel.
Each flask an essence of the sun
Sealed in a secret grot—
And here she reddens, one by one,
The tan-checked apricot.
And passed it to the lime,
The hedgerow waits, a thorny ring,
Brawn as in winter time.
And bare, beside the almond tree,
My vine-wrought citadel,
Where Summer globes, for you and me,
Her amber muscatel.
Each flask an essence of the sun
Sealed in a secret grot—
And here she reddens, one by one,
The tan-checked apricot.
II.
Hark! from yon wattle’s golden-fretted shade
Come clear familiar notes of music ringing,
Some old bird-ballad of an English glade,
That Time himself can scarce remember bringing.
And now in liquid syllables above,
The mocking songster of our wood replies,
Then listens; while the pine trees softly move,
Breathing a low accompaniment of sighs.
Hid in this leafy cloister let us wait,
And hear what news the travelling winds relate.
Come clear familiar notes of music ringing,
Some old bird-ballad of an English glade,
That Time himself can scarce remember bringing.
And now in liquid syllables above,
The mocking songster of our wood replies,
Then listens; while the pine trees softly move,
Breathing a low accompaniment of sighs.
Hid in this leafy cloister let us wait,
And hear what news the travelling winds relate.