Classic Poem

Weary and wandering, hand in hand,
Through ways and cities rough,
And with a law in every land
Written against our love,
We set our hearts to seek and find,
Forgotten now and out of mind,
Lost Eden garden desolate,
Hoping the angel would be kind,
And let us pass the gate.

We turned into the lawless waste
Wild outer gardens of the world —
We heard awhile our footsteps chased,
Men's curses at us hurled;
But safe at length, we came and found,
Open with ruined wall all round,
Lost Eden garden desolate;
No angel stood to guard the ground
At Eden garden gate.

We crossed the flower-encumbered floor,
And wandered up and down the place,
And marvelled at the open door
And all the desolate grace
And beast and bird with joy and song
That broke man's laws the whole day long;
For all was free in Eden waste:
There seemed no rule of right and wrong,
No fruit we might not taste.

Our hearts, o'erwhelmed with many a word
Of bitter scathing, human blame,
Trembled with what they late had heard,
And fear upon us came,
Till, finding the forbidden tree,
We ate the fruit, and stayed to see
If God would chide our wickedness;
No God forbade my love and me
In Eden wilderness.

The rose has overgrown the bower
In lawless Eden garden waste,
The eastern flower and western flower
Have met and interlaced;
The trees have joined above and twined
And shut out every cruel wind
That from the world was blown:
Ah, what a place for love to find
Is Eden garden grown!

The fair things exiled from the earth
Have found the way there in a dream;
The phoenix has its fiery birth
And nests there in the gleam;
Love's self, with draggled rainbow wings,
At rest now from his wanderings,
In Eden beds and bowers hath lain
So long, no wealth of worldly kings
Will win him back again.

And now we need not fear to kiss;
The serpent is our playfellow,
And tempts us on from bliss to bliss,
No man can see or know.
Love was turned out of Eden first
By God, and then of man accurst;
And fleeing long from human hate,
And counting man's hard laws the worst,
Returned to Eden gate.

Now every creature there obeys
Exuberantly his lawless power;
The wall is overthrown, the ways
Ruined by bird and flower;
The nuptial riot of the rose
Runs on for centuries and grows;
The great heart of the place is strong —
It swells in overmastering throes
Of passionate sigh and song.

And while we joy in Eden's state,
Outside men serve a loveless lord;
They think the angel guards the gate
With burning fiery sword!
Ah, fools! he fled an age ago,
The roses pressed upon him so,
And all the perfume from within,
And he forgot or did not know;
Eden must surely win.