Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke

Ernest Dowson (1867–1900)

Villanelle of Marguerites

“A little, passionately, not at all?”

She casts the snowy petals on the air;

And what care we how many petals fall?

Nay, wherefore seek the seasons to forestall?

It is but playing, and she will not care,

A little, passionately, not at all!

She would not answer us if we should call

Across the years; her visions are too fair;

And what care we how many petals fall!

She knows us not, nor recks if she enthrall

With voice and eyes and fashion of her hair,

A little, passionately, not at all!

Knee-deep she goes in meadow-grasses tall,

Kissed by the daisies that her fingers tear;

And what care we how many petals fall!

We pass and go; but she shall not recall

What men we were, nor all she made us bear;

“A little, passionately, not at all!”

And what care we how many petals fall!