Sonnet Variation: Alfred Austin's "Here, Where the Vine and Fig Bask Hand in Hand"
Here, where the vine and fig bask hand in hand
and luxury vines across the stone wall,
where rain of a sudden makes its fall
and nothing in earth or heaven is bland,
the days are self-building, and are not planned,
and as the bright insects here and there crawl,
we here and there move in our ways withal
across the face of the verdant land.
The sun peeks through trees in its morning rise,
no cloud to mar the cerulean blue,
no crowd to block out the light from my eyes,
yet none is more bright than brightness of you.
-- With you and the sun to lighten my skies,
my morn is as fresh as new-fallen dew.
