Heartsease Country

To Isabel Swinburne.     The far green westward heavens are bland,     The far green Wiltshire downs are clear     As these deep meadows hard at hand:     The sight knows hardly far from near,     Nor morning joy from evening cheer.     In cottage garden-plots their bees     Find many a fervent flower to seize     And strain and drain the heart away     From ripe sweet-williams and sweet-peas     At every turn on every way.     But gladliest seems one flower to expand     Its whole sweet heart all round us here;     Tis Heartsease Country, Pansy Land.     Nor sounds nor savours harsh and drear     Where engines yell and halt and veer     Can vex the sense of him who sees     One flower-plot midway, that for trees     Has poles, and sheds all grimed or grey     For bowers like those that take the breeze     At every turn on every way.     Content even there they smile and stand,     Sweet thoughts heart-easing flowers, nor fear,     With reek and roaring steam though fanned,     Nor shrink nor perish as they peer.     The hearts eye holds not those more dear     That glow between the lanes and leas     Whereer the homeliest hand may please     To bid them blossom as they may     Where light approves and wind agrees     At every turn on every way.     Sister, the word of winds and seas     Endures not as the word of these     Your wayside flowers whose breath would say     How hearts that love may find hearts ease     At every turn on every way.