Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/235



Green against the draggled drift, Faint and frail and first— Buy my Northern blood-root And I'll know where you were nursed!

Robin down the logging-road whistles, "Come to me!" Spring has found the maple-grove, the sap is running free. All the winds of Canada call the ploughing-rain. Take the flower and turn the hour, and kiss your love again!

Buy my English posies! Here's to match your need— Buy a tuft of royal heath, Buy a bunch of weed White as sand of Muisenberg Spun before the gale— Buy my heath and lilies And I'll tell you whence you hail!

Under hot Constantia broad the vineyards lie— Throned and thorned the aching berg props the speckless sky— Slow below the Wynberg firs trails the tilted wain— Take the flower and turn the hour, and kiss your love again!

Buy my English posies! You that will not turn— Buy my hot-wood clematis, Buy a frond o' fern Gathered where the Erskine leaps Down the road to Lome— Buy my Christmas creeper And I'll say where you were born!

West away from Melbourne dust holidays begin— They that mock at Paradise woo at Cora Lynn— Through the great South Otway gums sings the great South Main— Take the flower and turn the hour, and kiss your love again!