To my Wife: With a Copy of my Poems

TO MY WIFE

WITH A COPY OF MY POEMS

I can write no stately proem

      As a prelude to my lay;

From a poet to a poem

      I would dare to say.

For if of these fallen petals

      One to you seem fair,

Love will waft it till it settles

      On your hair.

And when wind and winter harden

      All the loveless land,

It will whisper of the garden,

      You will understand.