Classic Poem

Broad screens, which shut the dawnlight from the earth
Of emerald leaves dense woven thick across;
And under foot were strips of velvet moss
That sloped around the beech-tree's mighty girth.
No bird-song breaking into sudden mirth
But silence, and a sadness for such loss,
With here and there a shred of sunlight's gloss
To lighten up the forest's flowerless dearth.

So must the Eden garden once have stood
When Adam and his bride went on their way:
No birds nor flowers in the pleasant wood
But sombre aisles, and solemn spaces gray.
Do you remember how we found it there?
A green cathedral, ghostly-still and bare!