| Poems by Women |
A BENEDICTINE GARDEN
Through all the wind-blown aisles of May,
Faint bells
of perfume swing and fall.
Within this apple-petalled wall
(A gray east,
flecked with rosy day)
The pink laburnum lays her cheek
In married,
matchless, lovely bliss,
Against her golden mate, to seek
His airy kiss.
Tulips, in faded splendor drest,
Brood o'er their beds, a slumbrous
gloom.
Dame Peony, red and ripe with bloom,
Swells the silk housing of her
breast.
The Lilac, drunk to ecstasy,
Breaks her full flagons on the
air,
And drenches home the reeling bee
Who found her fair.
O cowled Legion of the Cross,
What solemn pleasantry is thine,
Vowing
to seek the life divine
Through abnegation and through loss!
Men but make
monuments of sin
Who walk the earth's ambitious round;
Thou hast the
richer realm within
This garden ground.
No woman's voice takes sweeter note
Than chanting of this plumed
choir.
No jewel ever wore the fire
Hung on a dewdrop's quivering
throat.
A ruddier pomp and pageantry
Than world's delight o'erfleets thy
sod;
And choosing this, thou hast in fee
The peace of God.
From: Stevenson, Burton Egbert.
The Home Book of Verse.
This poet:
[Author index]
This collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis.
Collection © 1999-2002 Jone Johnson Lewis.
Citing poems from these pages:
| Author. "Poem Title." Women's History: Poems by Women. Jone Johnson Lewis, editor. URL: (date of logon) |
