Classic Poem

Now did wallflower breathe
Where most was Eden wanted. Clear and sweet
It sprang out of her breast upon the air,
Like a bird flying beneath
High white clouds where
The blue floats in a broken cloud amid the white.
Now did wallflower breathe,
As if the earth in sudden sweet
Poured out passionate heat.
… Or smell or bird that from her bosom leapt
Where the deep-glowing petals slept
Upon her bosom's heat:
Or bird or smell it was some heavenward thing
Flying a sudden wing
Across the morning hour, making the fair more fair.

O, if but wallflower breathe
Its sweet unageing and intense,
Then if death neared her (as I passed her) blind,
The smell might thrill his nerves with sight and make him a little kind.
—But no! No earthly and no spiritual sense
Would stir and make him less than death
Or less than blind;
Though in her bosom wallflower burned with sweet
His cold shade beneath.