Celandine

Thinking of her had saddened me at first,

Until I saw the sun on the celandines

Redoubled, and she stood up like a flame,

A living thing, not what before I nursed,

The shadow I was growing to love almost,

The phantom, not the creature with bright

That I had thought never to see, once lost.

She found the celandines of

Always before us all.

Her nature and

Were like those flowers, and now

For a short swift eternity back she came,

Beautiful, happy, simply as when she

Her brightest bloom among the winter

Of all the world; and I was happy too,

Seeing the blossoms and the maiden

Had seen them with me February's before,

Bending to them as in and out she

And laughed, with locks sweeping the mossy sod.

But this was a dream; the flowers were not true,

Until I stooped to pluck from the grass

One of five petals and I smelt the

Which made me sigh, remembering she was no more,

Gone like a never perfectly recalled air.