Sea Lavender
Upon the marsh a filmy blur
As delicate as gossamer;
A wraith of fog, a vaporous wisp
With stem and leaves and branches crisp,
Their fibre toughened by the gale,
Can plant so hardy seem so frail?
Half hidden mid its stalks of green
The flowerets are scarcely seen
As dainty specks of ocean’s blue,
Or bits of sky that filtered through,
To melt in tints of amethyst
As evanescent as the mist.
And now through many a lacey line
That fairy fingers intertwine
Upon my mantelpiece at last
You shed the fragrance of the past;
A wraith of marshland witchery -
A floral memory of the sea.