DEDICATION OF “POEMS”

If the rose in meek duty

May dedicate humbly

To her grower the beauty

Wherewith she is comely;

If the mine to the miner

The jewels that pined in it;

Earth to diviner

The springs he divined in it;

To the grapes the wine-pitcher

Their juice that was crushed in it;

Viol to its witcher

The music lay hushed in it;

If the lips may pay Gladness

In laughters she wakened,

And the heart to its sadness

Weeping unslakened;

If the hid and sealed coffer

Whose having not his is,

To the loosers may proffer

Their finding — here this is;

Their lives if all livers

To the Life of all living,—

To you, O dear givers,

I give your own giving!