EVER the garden has a spiritual word:
In the slow lapses of unnoticed time
It drops from heaven, or upward learns to climb,
Breathing an earthly sweetness, as a bird
Is in the porches of the morning heard;
So, in the garden, flower to flower will chime,
And with the music thought and feeling rhyme,
And the hushed soul is with new glory stirred.
Beauty is silent, — through the summer day
Sleeps in her gold, — O wondrous sunlit gold,
Frosting the lilies’ virginal array!
Green, full-leaved walls the fragrant sculpture hold,
Warm, orient blooms! — how motionless are they —
Speechless — the eternal loveliness untold!