Poems (Van Rensselaer)/The Garden of the Wind

by Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer

THE GARDEN OF THE WIND

I
The North-West-Wind hath here his garden,
God-appointed as its warden.
Other winds may blow upon it,
Sift the sun and moisture on it,
Twine the wreaths of fog to lie
Tangled in its greenery;
But its life is lived for beauty,
And the North-West has the duty
At its lovely best to show it,
As its lovers love to know it.
When he comes he sweeps the blue
Pure of mist to sapphire hue,
Darker sapphire tints the sea
Where the garden's limits be;
Brings an air so diamond clear
That the garden leaves appear
Jewels all of diverse green:
Emerald, aquamarine,
Beryl, jade, and peridot
In North-West-Wind his garden grow.

II
Great his garden is and splendid,
'Twixt two waters far extended
Where the long point bars away
Restless ocean from still bay.
From the harbor to the sea
All is garden bravery:
Scarce the troubling plough or spade
Dareth this domain invade,
Nature-sown and nature-tended,
By her rocks and waves defended;
Scarcely may the scythe demand
Tribute from the salt marshland.
Nor do forests lift their heads
Over these green garden beds:
If thou seekest roof of shade,
Glimmering road and dusky glade,
Paths that lead thou knowest not whither,
Turn thy steps and come not hither—
Open to the enarching skies
North-West-Wind his garden lies.

III
These the tenants of the garden
Where the North-West-Wind is warden:
Elder and viburnum snows,
Lavish pinkness of wild rose,
Sweet-gale's mass of perfumed gray,
Shining green of berried bay,
Darker green of wilding pear,
Sumach with its crimson spear.
Cherry, birch, and tupelo
Shrub-like with black-alder grow;
Twice man-tall the blueberries
Bravely rank themselves as trees;
Spicy, white, the clethra spire,
Myriad-numbered, pointeth higher.
Through the fragrant thicket twines
Endless net of streaming vines;
Wheresoever they can press,
Fern and brake the ground possess;
And the great rocks spread their strength
Through North-West-Wind his garden's length.

V
Shelving cliff and rounded boulder
Show their stalwart slope and shoulder
By the sea-marge bare and yellow,
In the sheltered stretches mellow
With the lichen's bloomy gray.
Here their outposts drop away
To the verge of swampy reaches,
To the brink of rippling beaches;
Here they lift a lordly head
Banked in waves of green that spread
Up the crevice, up the edge,
To the topmost level ledge;
And in the low lands between
All is billowy floods of green
Whispering in a soft commotion,
Verdant acres of an ocean
Streaked with spindrift blossom-white,
Islanding each rocky height—
Tumbling seas of brake and bush
Where North-West-Wind his pinions rush.

Gloucester,
 1909.