What was the spell she wove for me? <br />Life was a common useful thing, <br />An eligible building site <br />To hold a house to shelter me. <br />There were no woodlands whispering; <br />No unimagined dreams at night <br />About that house had folded wing, <br />Disordering my life for me. <br /> <br />I was so safe until she came <br />With starry secrets in her eyes, <br />And on her lips the word of power. <br />- Like to the moon of May she came, <br />That makes men mad who were born wise - <br />Within her hand the only flower <br />Man ever plucked from Paradise; <br />So to my half-built house she came. <br /> <br />She turned my useful plot of land <br />Into a garden wild and fair, <br />Where stars in garlands hung like flowers: <br />A moonlit, lonely, lovely land. <br />Dim groves and glimmering fountains there <br />Embraced a secret bower of bowers, <br />And in its rose-ringed heart we were <br />Alone in that enchanted land. <br /> <br />What was the spell I wove for her, <br />Her mad dear magic to undo? <br />The red rose dies, the white rose dies, <br />The garden spits me forth with her <br />On the old suburban road I knew. <br />My house is gone, and by my side <br />A stranger stands with angry eyes <br />And lips that swear I ruined her.<br /><br />Edith Nesbit<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/magic-61/
