Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/372

THE CARIB SEA ROSE

Within the garden-plot whence I was borne

No rifled sisterhood became less fine;

My wealth made not the violet forlorn,

And near me climbed the fearless eglantine.

JASMINE

Who feels my breath recalls the orange court,

The terraced walks that jut upon the sea,

The water in the moonlit bay amort,

The midnight given to longing and to me.

ROSE

Who scents my blossoms dreams of bordered meads

Deep down the hollow of some vale far north,

Where Cuthbert with the fair-haired Hilda pleads,

And overhead the stars of June come forth.

JASMINE

Me with full hands enamored Manuel

Gathers for dark-browed Inez at his side,

And both to love are quickened by my spell,

And chide the day that doth their joys divide.

ROSE

Nay, but all climes, all tender sunlit lands

From whose high places spring the palm or pine,

Desire my gifts to grace the wedded bands,

And every home for me has placed a shrine.

JASMINE

Fold up thy heart, proud virgin, ay, and blush

With all the crimson tremors thou canst vaunt!

My yearning waves of passion onward rush,

And long the lover's wistful memory haunt.

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