78 GARDEN-SONG
Reading edition
“Adieu, nous n’irons plus aux champs”
—Charles Garnier.
Farewell to Fields and Butterflies And levities of Yester-year! For we espy, and hold more dear, The Wicket of our Destinies. Whereby we enter, once for all, A Garden which such Fruit doth yield As, tasted once, no more Afield We fare where Youth holds carnival. Farewell, fair Fields, none found amiss When laughter was a frequent noise And golden-hearted girls and boys Appraised the mouth they meant to kiss. Farewell, farewell! but for a space We, being young, Afield might stray, That in our Garden nod and say, Afield is no unpleasant place.