Garden

Sea Garden (1916)

I

You are clearO rose, cut in rock,hard as the descent of hail.

I could scrape the colourfrom the petalslike spilt dye from a rock.

If I could break youI could break a tree.

If I could stirI could break a tree—I could break you.

II

O wind, rend open the heat,cut apart the heat,rend it to tatters.

Fruit cannot dropthrough this thick air—fruit cannot fall into heatthat presses up and bluntsthe points of pearsand rounds the grapes.

Cut the heat—plough through it,turning it on either sideof your path.

from Sea Garden (1916)