| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Seeds | | By Augusta Webster (1837–1894) |
| | From Yu-Pe-Ya’s Lute
SEEDS with wings, between earth and sky | |
| Fluttering, flying; | |
| Seeds of a lily with blood-red core | |
| Breathing of myrrh and of giroflore: | |
| Where winds drop them, there must they lie, | 5 |
| Living or dying. | |
| |
| Some to the garden, some to the wall, | |
| Fluttering, falling, | |
| Some to the river, some to earth: | |
| Those that reach the right soil get birth: | 10 |
| None of the rest have lived at all. | |
| Whose voice is calling?— | |
| |
| ‘Here is soil for wing’d seeds that near, | |
| Fluttering, fearing, | |
| Where they shall root and burgeon and spread. | 15 |
| Lacking the heart-room the Song lies dead: | |
| Half is the Song that reaches the ear, | |
| Half is the hearing’. | | | | |
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