Perfume

Sir Edmund William Gosse (1849–1928)

WHAT gift for passionate lovers shall we find?

Not flowers nor books of verse suffice for me,

Nor splinters of the odorous cedar-tree,

And tufts of pine-buds, oozy in the wind;

Give me young shoots of aromatic rind,

Or samphire, redolent of sand and sea,

For all such fragrances I deem to be

Fit with my sharp desire to be combined.

My heart is like a poet, whose one room,

Scented with Latakia faint and fine,

Dried rose-leaves, and spilt attar, and old wine,

From curtained windows gathers its warm gloom

Round all but one sweet picture where incline

His thoughts and fancies mingled with perfume.