HEARTSEASE COUNTRY.

The far green westward heavens are bland,

The far green Wiltshire downs are clear

As these deep meadows hard at hand:

The sight knows hardly far from near,

Nor morning joy from evening cheer.

In cottage garden-plots their bees

Find many a fervent flower to seize

And strain and drain the heart away

From ripe sweet-williams and sweet-peas

At every turn on every way.

But gladliest seems one flower to expand

Its whole sweet heart all round us here;

‘ Tis Heartsease Country, Pansy Land.

Nor sounds nor savours harsh and drear

Where engines yell and halt and veer

Can vex the sense of him who sees

One flower-plot midway, that for trees

Has poles, and sheds all grimed or grey

For bowers like those that take the breeze

At every turn on every way.

Content even there they smile and stand,

Sweet thought's heart-easing flowers, nor fear,

With reek and roaring steam though fanned,

Nor shrink nor perish as they peer.

The heart's eye holds not those more dear

That glow between the lanes and leas

Where'er the homeliest hand may please

To bid them blossom as they may

Where light approves and wind agrees

At every turn on every way.

Sister, the word of winds and seas

Endures not as the word of these

Your wayside flowers whose breath would say

How hearts that love may find heart's ease

At every turn on every way.