Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy (1844-1881). Song: 'I made another garden, yea'. Andrew Macphail, comp. 1916. The Book of Sorrow

Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916.

XXXII. Visions
Song: ‘I made another garden, yea’

By Arthur William Edgar O’Shaughnessy (1844–1881)


I MADE another garden, yea,
For my new Love;
I left the dead rose where it lay
And set the new above.
Why did my Summer not begin?	5
Why did my heart not haste?
My old Love came and walk’d therein,
And laid the garden waste.

She enter’d with her weary smile,
Just as of old;	10
She look’d around a little while
And shiver’d at the cold:
Her passing touch was death to all,
Her passing look a blight;
She made the white rose-petals fall,	15
And turn’d the red rose white.

Her pale robe clinging to the grass
Seem’d like a snake
That bit the grass and ground, alas!
And a sad trail did make.	20
She went up slowly to the gate,
And then, just as of yore,
She turn’d back at the last to wait
And say farewell once more.