In The Willow Shade - Ghizela Rowe

In The Willow Shade by Christina Georgina Rossetti

I sat beneath a willow tree

Where water falls and calls;

While fancies upon fancies solaced me

Some true and some were false

Who set their heart upon a hope

That never comes to pass

Droop in the end like fading heliotrope

The sun's wan looking-glass

Who set their will upon a whim

Clung to through good and ill

Are wrecked alike whether they sink or swim

Or hit or miss their will

All things are vain that wax and wane

For which we waste our breath;

Love only doth not wane and is not vain

Love only outlives death

A singing lark rose toward the sky

Circling he sang amain;

He sang a speck scarce visible sky-high

And then he sank again

A second like a sunlit spark

Flashed singing up his track;

But never overtook that foremost lark

And songless fluttered back

A hovering melody of birds

Haunted the air above;

They clearly sang contentment without words

And youth and joy and love

O silvery weeping willow tree

With all leaves shivering

Have you no purpose but to shadow me

Beside this rippled spring

On this first fleeting day of Spring

For Winter is gone by

And every bird on every quivering wing

Floats in a sunny sky;

On this first Summer-like soft day

While sunshine steeps the air

And every cloud has gat itself away

And birds sing everywhere

Have you no purpose in the world

But thus to shadow me

With all your tender drooping twigs unfurled

O weeping willow tree

With all your tremulous leaves outspread

Betwixt me and the sun

While here I loiter on a mossy bed

With half my work undone;

My work undone that should be done

At once with all my might;

For after the long day and lingering sun

Comes the unworking night

This day is lapsing on its way

Is lapsing out of sight;

And after all the chances of the day

Comes the resourceless night

The weeping willow shook its head

And stretched its shadow long;

The west grew crimson the sun smoldered red

The birds forbore a song

Slow wind sighed through the willow leaves

The ripple made a moan

The world drooped murmuring like a thing that grieves;

And then I felt alone

I rose to go and felt the chill

And shivered as I went;

Yet shivering wondered and I wonder still

What more that willow meant;

That silvery weeping willow tree

With all leaves shivering

Which spent one long day overshadowing me

Beside a spring in Spring