In Divers Tones

by Charles G.D. Roberts

Edited by Tracy Ware

 

A BREAK

 
Oh, the scent of the hyacinth blossom!
   The joy of that night,
   But the grievous awaking!
   The speed of my flight
   Thro’ the dawn redly breaking!
5
   Gray lay the still sea;
   Naked hillside and lea;
   And gray with night frost
   The wide garden I crossed!
   But the hyacinth beds were a-bloom.
10
   I stooped and plucked one—
   In an instant ’twas done,—
   And I heard, not far off, a gun boom!
   In my bosom
   I thrust the crushed blossom;
15
   And turned, and looked back
   Where She stood at her pane
   Waving sadly farewell once again;
   Then down the dim track
   Fled amain,
20
   With the flower in my bosom.
Oh, the scent of the hyacinth blossom!