Explore "Afterbloom" by Leigh Gordon Giltner on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Gay was her garden as some gorgeous fabric / Weft on an Orient loom, / Star-set upon the sward quaint, old-time blossoms / Wrought broidery of bloom.
Verbenas, dahlias, asters, scarlet cannas / Like torches flaming tall; / (Methought the fair, old face, enframed in silver, / The sweetest flower of all!)
And one rare rose she watched each year with hoping / Till the dear eyes grew dim-- / But ere a single blossom burst in beauty / God took her home to Him. / Yet when the Spring next woke the earth to laughter / And boon of blossom gave, / Starred was the rose with white, unearthly flowers-- / We laid them on her grave.
And so, meseems, the buds we woo most fondly / Nor light nor perfume shed; / And Love's gold-hearted rose and Hope's star-flower / Oft bloom when we are dead.