Classic Poem

I HAVE been where the white lilies blow
That no heart ponders;
I have been where the rose-thickets grow,
And love never wanders;
Where the laurel-branch unbroken
Forgets the songful strife;
I have found this Death-in-life;
'Tis in Wild Eden!

There over the low lilied lawns,
Down rose-leaf alleys,
She moves under silent dawns
Through songless valleys;
Cold rose and snow-cold lilies
Shall for the maid be strewn,
Nor laurel for her moan;
'Tis in Wild Eden!

I have sent my songs up to her —
Sweetly youth left me;
I have given my manhood to woo her,
And of all bereft me;
And nightly I wake from the garden
That lieth remote, apart,
On the bourn of the hopeless heart: —
'Tis in Wild Eden.