Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.
Arthur William Edgar OShaughnessy 184481At Her Grave
OShaughnI
Now I come back again.
Love, have you stirr’d down there in your dreams
Through the sunny days or the rain?
Ah, no! the same peace: you are happy so;
And your flowers, how do they grow?
Ah, little red gift put up
So silently, like a child’s present, you see
Lying beside your cup!
And geranium leaves,—I will take, if I may,
Two or three to carry away.
Grow ugly weeds. With my heart,
Thinking of you and your garden of flowers,
I went to do my part,
Plucking up, where they poison the human wheat,
The weeds of cant and deceit.
Begets few thanks, much hate;
And the new crop only will find the soil
Less foul,—for the old ’t is too late.
I come back to the only spot I know
Where a weed will never grow.