| |
| FROM this high window, in the twilight dim, | |
| I look beyond a lofty garden wall, | |
| And see well-ordered walks and borders trim, | |
| With trellised vines and ranks of fruit-trees tall. | |
| |
| Along the darkling shrubbery, where most | 5 |
| The garden’s olden lord at evening strayed, | |
| I half perceive a silent, stately ghost | |
| Taking dim shape against the denser shade. | |
| |
| His footstep makes no rustle in the grass, | |
| Nor shakes the tenderest blossom on its stem; | 10 |
| The light leaves bend aside to let him pass,— | |
| Or is it but the wind that touches them? | |
| |
| A statesman, with a grave, reflective air, | |
| Once used to walk there, in the shadows sweet; | |
| Now the broad apple-trees, his pride and care, | 15 |
| Spread their pink carpet wide for alien feet. | |
| |
| Beneath those friendly boughs, with mind unbent, | |
| He found sometimes a respite sweet and brief; | |
| Threaded the wandering ways in pleased content, | |
| And plucked a flower, or pulled a fragrant leaf; | 20 |
| |
| Twined a stray tendril, lopped a straggling limb, | |
| Or raised a spray that drooped across the walk; | |
| Watched unscared birds that shared the shade with him, | |
| Saw robins build, or heard the sparrows talk. | |
| |
| His native streets now hardly know his name; | 25 |
| And in the world of politics, wherein | |
| He toiled so long and earned an honored fame, | |
| It is almost as though he had not been. | |
| |
| Amid the earnest councils of the land, | |
| His lofty form, his cold and clear-cut face, | 30 |
| His even voice, and wise restraining hand | |
| Are known no more, and others take his place. | |
| |
| But in this haunt of quietude and rest, | |
| Which for so many years he loved and knew, | |
| The bird comes back to build its annual nest, | 35 |
| The months return, with sun and snow and dew. | |
| |
| Nature lives on, though king or statesman dies; | |
| Thus mockingly these little lives of ours, | |
| So brief, so transient, seem to emphasize | |
| The immortality of birds and flowers! | 40 |
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