Augusta Webster (1837–1894)

From Yu-Pe-Ya’s Lute

SEEDS with wings, between earth and sky

Fluttering, flying;

Seeds of a lily with blood-red core

Breathing of myrrh and of giroflore:

Where winds drop them, there must they lie,

Living or dying.

Some to the garden, some to the wall,

Fluttering, falling,

Some to the river, some to earth:

Those that reach the right soil get birth:

None of the rest have lived at all.

Whose voice is calling?—

‘Here is soil for wing’d seeds that near,

Fluttering, fearing,

Where they shall root and burgeon and spread.

Lacking the heart-room the Song lies dead:

Half is the Song that reaches the ear,

Half is the hearing’.