I’m not sure what it is about gardening that brings out the rhyme and meter in me, but it seems to have happened again. (Previous effort: Garden delights.)
Response to the gardener’s proposal
Do not speak to me of roses
rooted in a garden fair:
I would rather hear of meadows
and the thistles growing there.
Do not talk of ordered orchards
laid in rows all long and neat:
I would rather dream of wildwood
overgrown with bittersweet.
If marriage be a stately garden,
it were all too mild and tame:
measured beds with well-marked borders
hedged and trimmed to look the same.
I prefer a reckless corner
riotous with self-sown seeds,
tended with unbound affection
and a fondness for glorious weeds.
* * *
A question, dear reader: Do you prefer it laid out as above or below?
Response to the gardener’s proposal
Do not speak to me of roses rooted in a garden fair:
I would rather hear of meadows and the thistles growing there.
Do not talk of ordered orchards laid in rows all long and neat:
I would rather dream of wildwood overgrown with bittersweet.
If marriage be a stately garden, it were all too mild and tame:
measured beds with well-marked borders hedged and trimmed to look the same.
I prefer a reckless corner riotous with self-sown seeds,
tended with unbound affection and a fondness for glorious weeds.
* * *
I like the visual weight of the four-line stanzas, but worry that it may interfere with reading, which should be phrased as two lines. What do you think?
The Daily Compost 