BLUE ROSES

Roses red and roses white
Plucked I for my love's delight.
She would none of all my posies
Bade me gather her blue roses.

Half the world I wandered through, Seeking where such flowers grew Half the world unto my quest Answered me with laugh and jest.

Home I came at wintertide
But my silly love had died
Seeking with her latest breath
Roses from the arms of Death.

It may be beyond the grave

She shall find what she would have.

Mine was but an idle quest

Roses white and red are best.

BUTTERFLIES

Eyes aloft, over dangerous places,
The children follow the butterflies
And, in the sweat of their upturned faces,
Slash with a net at the empty skies.

So it goes they fall amid brambles.
And sting their toes on the nettle-tops,
Till after a thousand scratches and scrambles,
They wipe their brows and the hunting stops.

Then to quiet them comes their father
And stills the riot of pain and grief,
Saying, "Little ones, go and gather
Out of my garden a cabbage-leaf.

"You will find on it whorls and clots of
Dull gray eggs that, properly fed,
Turn, by way of the worm, to lots of
Glorious butterflies raised from the dead.

"Heaven is beautiful, Earth is ugly" The three-dimensioned preacher saith,

So we must not look where the snail and the slug lie For Psyche's birth. death!

And that is our

MY LADY'S LAW

The Law whereby my lady moves
Was never Law to me,

But 'tis enough that she approves
Whatever Law it be.

For in that Law, and by that Law,
My constant course I'll steer;

Not that I heed or deem it dread,
But that she holds it dear.

Tho Asia sent for my content

Her richest argosies,

Those would I spurn, and bid return,

If that should give her ease.

With equal heart I'd watch depart

Each spiced sail from sight,

Sans bitterness, desiring less

Great gear than her delight.

Though Kings made swift with many a gift My proven sword to hire —

I would not go nor serve 'em so
Except at her desire.

With even mind, I'd put behind
Adventure and acclaim,

And clean give o'er, esteeming more

Her favour than my fame.

Yet such am I, yea such am I

Sore bond and freest free,

The Law that sways my lady's ways Is mystery to me!