COULD YOU GUESS?
When your arms were full of blossoms
We had plucked beside the way
That winds round beside the river
Where the sunlit ripples play—
When your arms were full of blossoms,
And the light was on your hair,
Could you guess that never, never,
Held the world one half so fair?
When your arms were full of blossoms,
And you stepped into the road
From the fields where rippling billows
Of delightful blossoms flowed,
Running after, after, after,
Just to crowd about your feet,
Did you know it—that the wide world
Held no other half so sweet?
When your arms were full of blossoms,
And you bent until your hair
Mingled with their perfumed sweetness,
And your brow so broad and fair
Felt their timid, swift caresses,
Dear, dear heart, were you acquaint
With the fact that never artist
Such a scene as that could paint?
When your arms were full of blossoms,
Did you catch the sudden hush?
Know the river ceased its singing?
Know the thralldom of the thrush?
Know all nature hung in rapture
On the necromantic spell
Of your purity and beauty?
Did you know it? Could you tell?