Poems (Scudder)/A Château in the Aisne
A CHÂTEAU IN THE AISNE
This was the prettiest thing we saw—the wee Chateau that nestled lilywise beside Its moat a boy might cross with one bold stride Two towers double-spired peeped warily Where frail wistaria smokelike wreathed and clung A garden hid behind a privet hedge But sweeter far along the lakelet's edge The mauve and golden iris thickly clung. A wood there was of holly, larch and pine That tapered daintily as mosses fine Against the softly fading afterglow Peachbloom and amethyst—all might have been Painted in powdered gems upon a screen Of satin with rosewater by Watteau.