I MADE another garden, yea,   For my new Love: I left the dead rose where it lay   And set the new above. Why did my Summer not begin?   Why did my heart not haste? My old Love came and walk'd therein,   And laid the garden waste.

She enter'd with her weary smile,   Just as of old; She look'd around a little while   And shiver'd with the cold: Her passing touch was death to all,   Her passing look a blight; She made the white rose-petals fall,   And turn'd the red rose white.

Her pale robe clinging to the grass   Seem'd like a snake That bit the grass and ground, alas!   And a sad trail did make. She went up slowly to the gate,   And then, just as of yore, She turn'd back at the last to wait   And say farewell once more.