Amongst the Roses

I walked through a Forest, beneath the hot noon,     On Etheline calling and calling!     One said: She will hear you and come to you soon,     When the coolness, my brother, is falling.     But I whispered: O Darling, I falter with pain!     And the thirsty leaves rustled, and hissed for the rain,     Where a wayfarer halted and slept on the plain;     And dreamt of a garden of Roses!     Of a cool sweet place,     And a nestling face     In a dance and a dazzle of Roses.     In the drouth of a Desert, outwearied, I wept,     O Etheline, darkened with dolours!     But, folded in sunset, how long have you slept     By the Roses all reeling with colours?     A tree from its tresses a blossom did shake,     It fell on her face, and I feared she would wake,     So I brushed it away for her sweet sake;     In that garden of beautiful Roses!     In the dreamy perfumes     From ripe-red blooms     In a dance and a dazzle of Roses.