THE ROCK GARDEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3888, 18 September 1928, Page 72

THE ROCK GARDEN.

I shall not plant these flowers upon your grave. There, in undreaming sleep, you would not know If, softly, into petaled loveliness, The multicoloured buds of them should grow. Instead, I’ll use their quaint simplicity To stitch our little garden’s rocky hem. Here I shall plant this scilla, Wedgwood blue. Pink saxifrage, gold stars of Bethlehem. Here I shall put frail-chalieed crocuses, And jonquils to be harbingers of spring. / Here I shall plant these pansies, kitten-faced, And all the simple flowers the neighbours bring. Then early at some April eventide. When near grey rocks the blossom-colours shine— Timidly sure and gaily delicate — You will return and place your hand in mine. You will return and be so. pleased to note Grape hyacinths—such perfect, tiny things That where they are one looks for fairy forms And listens for the whir of wee, thin wings. Then you will marvel that this rocky place Has, after barren years, begun to bloom, And you will say it is another proof Of Lite arisen from a stone-sealed tomb ! I shall not put these flowers upon your grave. There, where you lie asleep, you would not see. But there, in this small garden that you loved. You will be walking every day with me I —Violet Alleyn Storey, in Good Housekeeping.