“I mean to build a hall anon, And shape two turrets there, And a broad newelled stair, And a cool well for crystal water;
Yes; I will build a hall anon, Plant roses love shall feed upon, And apple trees and pear.” He set to build the manor-hall,
And shaped the turrets there, And the broad newelled stair, And the cool well for crystal water; He built for me that manor-hall,
And planted many trees withal, But no rose anywhere. And as he planted never a rose That bears the flower of love,
Though other flowers throve A frost-wind moved our souls to sever Since he had planted never a rose; And misconceits raised horrid shows,
And agonies came thereof. “I'll mend these miseries,” then said I, And so, at dead of night, I went and, screened from sight,
That nought should keep our souls in severance, I set a rose-bush. “This,” said I, “May end divisions dire and wry, And long-drawn days of blight.”
But I was called from earth — yea, called Before my rose-bush grew; And would that now I knew What feels he of the tree I planted,
And whether, after I was called To be a ghost, he, as of old, Gave me his heart anew! Perhaps now blooms that queen of trees
I set but saw not grow, And he, beside its glow - Eyes couched of the mis-vision that blurred me - Ay, there beside that queen of trees
He sees me as I was, though sees Too late to tell me so!
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