The Song of the Garden-Toad

Down, down beneath the daisy beds,         O hear the cries of pain!         And moaning on the cinder-path         They're blind amid the rain.         Can murmurs of the worms arise         To higher hearts than mine?         I wonder if that gardener hears         Who made the mold all fine         And packed each gentle seedling down         So carefully in line?         I watched the red rose reaching up         To ask him if he heard         Those cries that stung the evening earth         Till all the rose-roots stirred.         She asked him if he felt the hate         That burned beneath them there.         She asked him if he heard the curse         Of worms in black despair.         He kissed the rose.    What did it mean?         What of the rose's prayer?         Down, down where rain has never come         They fight in burning graves,         Bleeding and drinking blood         Within those venom-caves.         Blaspheming still the gardener's name,         They live and hate and go.         I wonder if the gardener heard         The rose that told him so?