Afternoon

<SPAN name="XV"></SPAN>XV<br/> <br/> <br/> I thought our joy had been forever dulled<br/> Like sun that fades before the day has fled,<br/> When sickness, to a bed of weariness,<br/> Slowly dragged me with its arms of lead.<br/> <br/> Garden and flow'rs were either feared or false;<br/> The very light of day was a distress;<br/> And my poor hands already were too weak<br/> To hold our trembling, captive, happiness.<br/> <br/> My desires became but evil plants<br/> That scourged like thistles in a windy place;<br/> I felt my heart both frozen and afire,<br/> Then arid, and rebellious unto grace.<br/> <br/> But, nowhere searching save in simple love,<br/> The most consoling word of all you spoke;<br/> And at the glowing fire of your word<br/> I warmed myself until the daylight broke.<br/> <br/> I was not in your eyes, as in my own,<br/> A man belittled by disease and grief;<br/> You plucked me flowers from the window-ledge,<br/> And I believed in health with your belief.<br/> <br/> You brought to me within your garments' folds<br/> The eager air, the wind of field and wood,<br/> Scents of the eve and odours of the dawn,<br/> And sunlight in your kisses fresh and good.<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />