Apple-green west and an orange bar,
And the crystal eye of a lone, one star . . .
And, "Child, take the shears and cut what you will,
Frost to-night -- so clear and dead-still."
Then, I sally forth, half sad, half proud,
And I come to the velvet, imperial crowd,
The wine-red, the gold, the crimson, the pied, --
The dahlias that reign by the garden-side.
The dahlias I might not touch till to-night!
A gleam of the shears in the fading light,
And I gathered them all, -- the splendid throng,
And in one great sheaf I bore them along.
. . . . .
In my garden of Life with its all-late flowers
I heed a Voice in the shrinking hours:
"Frost to-night -- so clear and dead-still" . . .
Half sad, half proud, my arms I fill.
A beautiful poem on life is being well composed by Edith Matilda Thomas.
The abundance of life and of Nature lived and much appreciated near its end.
In my garden of Life! ! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.
Wonderful poem..I'm particularly struck by the profound, beautifully realised metaphor, '...my garden of Life with its all-late flowers'.
Let's try this again! I don't 'get it', therefore I don't like it much, BUT it has fine rhyming. bri : ) Maybe if I'd lived when she did [[Edith Matilda Thomas (August 12,1854 - September 13,1925) ]] I'd understand the poem. bri ;)
Powerful and beautiful closure lines. Great imagery.
There is not enough space here to properly comment (even briefly) on Thomas's great poetical contributions...
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
In my garden of Life with its all-late flowers I heed a Voice in the shrinking hours: " Frost to-night - so clear and dead-still" ... Half sad, half proud, my arms I fill. very fine ending of a superb poem. tony