No hint was told to these untutored seed:

Along the mould wherein their roots are curled,

No whisper runs of station, caste or creed,

To guide their tendrils through a jealous world.

From palace wall or cottage door, these blooms,

In careless disarray of white and red,

Will peer through open windows into rooms

Where princes sit, or women kneading bread.

Along these tender twilights where they lean,

They send no whispered gossip down at all,

Of cradle songs, or counsels of a queen,

To roots indifferent if that upper wall

Be loud with battles and the clash of Kings,

Or quiet, where a mother sits and sings.

[49]

[49]

AUDIENCE

I am aware of crowds behind the night,

Of eager faces just beyond our eyes,

Immured in silences and lost to light,

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