Garden Gossip

Thin, chisel-fine a cricket chipped
The crystal silence into sound;
And where the branches dreamed and dripped
A grasshopper its dagger stripped
And on the humming darkness ground.

A bat, against the gibbous moon,
Danced, imp-like, with its lone delight;
The glow-worm scrawled a golden rune
Upon the dark; and, emerald-strewn,
The firefly hung with lamps the night.

The flowers said their beads in prayer,
Dew-syllables of sighed perfume;
Or talked of two, soft-standing there,
One like a gladiole, straight and fair,
And one like some rich poppy-bloom.

The mignonette and feverfew
Laid their pale brows together: —" See!"
One whispered. "Did their step thrill through
Your roots? " —" Like rain." —" I touched the two
And a new bud was born in me."

One rose said to another: —" Whose
Is this dim music? song, that parts
My crimson petals like the dews?"
"My blossom trembles with sweet news —
It is the love of two young hearts."