HEART-EASE

AST June — how slight a thing to tell !—
One straggling leaf beneath the limes
Against the sunset rose and fell,
Making a rhythm with coloured rhymes.

No other leaf in all the air
Seemed waking; and my little maid
Watched with me, from the garden-chair,
Its rhythmic play of light and shade.

Now glassy gold, now greenish grey,

It dropped, it lifted. That was all.
Strange I should still feel glad to-day

To have seen that one leaf lift and fall.

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