Destroyers and Other Verses/In the Garden of the Luxembourg

by Henry Head

 

In the Garden of the Luxembourg.

My idle hours of spring
Beneath the chestnut trees
Float on like clouds that string
White streamers to the breeze.

Each thought that upward floats
Its wanton course doth take,
Wind-tossed like baby boats
Upon a mimic lake.

My spirit leaps and bounds,
Propelled by childish joy,
And merrily resounds
With laugh of girl and boy.

Come where the chestnut trees
Their new-found shadows fling,
Cast care away and seize
The idle hours of spring.

Paris, Spring, 1849.