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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  824. A Garden Song

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Henry Austin Dobson. b. 1840

824. A Garden Song

HERE in this sequester’d close 
Bloom the hyacinth and rose, 
Here beside the modest stock 
Flaunts the flaring hollyhock; 
Here, without a pang, one sees         5
Ranks, conditions, and degrees. 
 
All the seasons run their race 
In this quiet resting-place; 
Peach and apricot and fig 
Here will ripen and grow big;  10
Here is store and overplus,— 
More had not Alcinoüs! 
 
Here, in alleys cool and green, 
Far ahead the thrush is seen; 
Here along the southern wall  15
Keeps the bee his festival; 
All is quiet else—afar 
Sounds of toil and turmoil are. 
 
Here be shadows large and long; 
Here be spaces meet for song;  20
Grant, O garden-god, that I, 
Now that none profane is nigh,— 
Now that mood and moment please,— 
Find the fair Pierides!