AMOR UMBRATILIS

A gift of Silence, sweet!

Who may not ever hear:

To lay down at your unobservant feet,

Is all the gift I bear.

I have no songs to sing,

That you should heed or know:

I have no lilies, in full hands, to fling

Across the path you go.

I cast my flowers away,

Blossoms unmeet for you!

The garland I have gathered in my day:

My rosemary and rue.

I watch you pass and pass,

Serene and cold: I lay

My lips upon your trodden, daisied grass,

And turn my life away.

Yea, for I cast you, sweet!

This one gift, you shall take:

Like ointment, on your unobservant feet,

My silence, for your sake.