Possession

There bloomed by my cottage door

A rose with a heart scented sweet,

O so lovely and fair that I plucked it one day,

Laid it over my own heart's quick beat.

In a moment its petals were shed:

Just a tiny white mound at my feet.

There flew through my casements low

A linnet who richly could sing.

Sang so thrillingly sweet I could not let it go

But must cage it, the glad, pretty thing.

But it died in the cage I had made,

Not a note to my chamber would bring.

There came to my lonely soul

A friend I had waited for long,

And the deep chilly silence lay stricken and dead,

Pierc'd to death by our love and our song.

And I thought on the bird and the flow'r

And my soul in its knowledge grew strong.

Go out when thou wilt, O friend; --

Sing thy song, roam the world glad and free;

By the holding I lose; by the giving I gain,

And the gods cannot take thee from me;

For a song and a scent on the wind

Shall drift in through the doorway from thee.