I Will Ask

I will ask primrose and violet to spend for you     Their smell and hue,     And the bold, trembling anemone awhile to spare     Her flowers starry fair;     Or the flushed wild apple and yet sweeter thorn     Their sweetness to keep     Longer than any fire-bosomed flower born     Between midnight and midnight deep.     And I will take celandine, nettle and parsley, white     In its own green light,     Or milkwort and sorrel, thyme, harebell and meadowsweet     Lifting at your feet,     And ivy blossom beloved of soft bees; I will take     The loveliest--     The seeding grasses that bend with the winds, and shake     Though the winds are at rest.     "For me?" you will ask. "Yes! surely they wave for you     Their smell and hue,     And you away all that is rare were so much less     By your missed happiness."     Yet I know grass and weed, ivy and apple and thorn     Their whole sweet would keep     Though in Eden no human spirit on a shining morn     Had awaked from sleep.