Explore "Lilacs" by Virna Sheard on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
In lonely gardens deserted -- unseen -- / Oh! lovely lilacs of purple and white, / You are dipping down through a mist of green; / For the morning sun's delight. / And the velvet bee, all belted with black, / Drinks deep of the wine which your flagons hold, / Clings close to your plumes while he fills his pack / With a load of burnished gold.
You hide the fences with blossoms of snow, / And sweeten the shade of castle towers; / Over low, grey gables you brightly blow, / Like amethysts turned to flowers. / The tramp on the highway -- ragged and bold -- / Wears you close to his heart with jaunty air; / You rest in my lady's girdle of gold, / And are held against her hair.
In God's own acre your tender flowers, / Bend down to the grasses and seem to sigh / For those who count time no more by hours -- / Whose summers have all passed by -- / But at eventide the south wind will sing, / Like a gentle priest who chanteth a prayer; / And thy purple censers he'll set a-swing, / To perfume the twilight air.