Versamelde gedigte

Poem on the coming of Spring

O don for me, my darling,

Your jewels of desire -

The babiana's blue that shames
The sky above, the rubied flames,
The rochea's splendid cyme of fire;

And golds and russets left astray

On this October day!

O doff for me, my darling,

Your sorrow and your sleep!

The ragged rust that bore the rain
That took the dry road's dusty stain
And marred the beauty of your sweep,

And made you drab and gaunt and grey

On this October day!

My darling, o my darling,

Be perfect in array

Of splendid sorrelled pageantry,
With life in fitting harmony,
With naught to add or wash away,

Or bring the thought of Winter's May

On this October day!

Yes, don for me, my darling,

Your finest sorrel dress

Of lilac, chrome, and litvit white
Of mauve and pink and malachite,

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Of colours rare and numberless

 

And tinsel textures rich and gay

 

On this October day!

 

 

 

O doff for me, my darling,

 

Your chill austerity,

 

Which Winter, wanton with her rime,

 

Made for your garb of widow-time,

 

The sad grey brown's solemnity

 

Unfitting for your springtime play

 

On this October day!

 

 

 

O dower me, my darling,

 

With love so that I may,

 

Through weather fretted wintry years,

 

Through all that sorrows, all that fears,

 

Still hold your memory as you lay,

 

In splendid radiance of display,

 

On this October day!

Jagger-biblioteek, Universiteit van Kaapstad