268
CHILDHOOD.
The sun-flowers and the moon-flowers
(These were lilies white and tall),
The ancient griffins that looked down
Upon me from the wall!
These were for tokens unto me
And signs, they seemed to pass
Into my life as then I lay
At noon-day on the grass,
And twined a wondrous history
Slow twisting, branch and stem,
My garlands binding all the while
My Being up with them;
And I knew that in the wild-wood
'Mid the meadows, on the hill
Were flowers, but unto childhood
The best were nearest still;
And I sometimes thought "out yonder
I will seek for blossoms too,"
But turned again the fonder
To those that round me grew;
Still have I flowers around me—
But some that grow so high
I cannot reach unto them,
And they drop not till they die;
Still I have flowers around me—
But some that lie so low
I cannot stoop to pluck them,
They must wither where they grow;
Still have I flowers to eye more fair,
More dear unto the heart
(These were lilies white and tall),
The ancient griffins that looked down
Upon me from the wall!
These were for tokens unto me
And signs, they seemed to pass
Into my life as then I lay
At noon-day on the grass,
And twined a wondrous history
Slow twisting, branch and stem,
My garlands binding all the while
My Being up with them;
And I knew that in the wild-wood
'Mid the meadows, on the hill
Were flowers, but unto childhood
The best were nearest still;
And I sometimes thought "out yonder
I will seek for blossoms too,"
But turned again the fonder
To those that round me grew;
Still have I flowers around me—
But some that grow so high
I cannot reach unto them,
And they drop not till they die;
Still I have flowers around me—
But some that lie so low
I cannot stoop to pluck them,
They must wither where they grow;
Still have I flowers to eye more fair,
More dear unto the heart
