Madison Julius Cawein

In an Old Garden

The Autumn pines and fades
 Upon the withered trees;
And over there, a choked despair,
 You hear the moaning breeze.

The violets are dead;
 Dead the tall hollyhocks,
That hang like rags on the wind-crushed flags,
 And the lilies' livid stocks.

The wild gourd clambers free
 Where the clematis was wont;
Where nenuphars waxed thick as stars
 Rank weeds stagnate the font.

Yet in my dreams I hear
 A tinkling mandolin;
In the dark blue light of a fragrant night
 Float in and out and in.

And the dewy vine that climbs
 To my lady's lattice sways,
And behind the vine there come to shine
 Two pleasant eyes and gaze.

And now a perfume comes,
 A swift Favonian gust;
And the shrinking grass where it doth pass
 Bows slave-like to the dust.

In dreams I see her drift
 A mist of drapery;
In her jeweled shawl divinely tall,
 A Dian deity.

The moon broods high and full
 O'er the broken Psyche cold,
And there she stands her dainty hands
 And thin wrists warm with gold.

But lovers now are dead,
 The air is stung with frosts;
And naught may you find save the homeless wind,
 Dead violets' ghosts and ghosts.