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POND-LILIES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In early morning, when the air
Last Line: The brooding haze, the trembling flush.
Alternate Author Name(s): Van Deth, Gerrit, Mrs.
Subject(s): Flowers; Lilies


IN early morning, when the air
Is full of tender prophecy,
And rose-hue faint and pearl-mist fair
Are hints of splendor yet to be,

The lilies open. Gleaming white,
Their fluted cups like onyx shine,
And golden-hearted, in the light,
They hold the summer's rarest wine.

Ah, love, what mornings thou and I
Once idly drifted through, afloat
Among the lilies, with the sky
Cloud-curtained o'er our tiny boat!

Noon climbed apace with ardent feet;
The goblets shut, whose honey-dew
Was overbrimmed with subtle sweet
While yet the silver dawn was new.

The pomp of royal crowning lay
On daisied field and dimpling dell;
And on the blue hills far away
In dazzling waves the glory fell;

And, flashing to our measured stroke,
The waters seemed a path of gems,
Beneath whose clear refraction broke
A grove with mirrored fronds and stems.

In music on the sparkling shore
The plashing ripples fell asleep:
We laid aside the dripping oar,
For our delight we could not keep.

In all the splendor farther on
We missed the morning's maiden blush;
The soft expectancy was gone,—
The brooding haze, the trembling flush.





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