A small gift of verse to a wife
To My Wife
"It will whisper of the garden"
Poem
With a Copy of My Poems
I can write no stately proemAs a prelude to my lay;From a poet to a poemI would dare to say.
For if of these fallen petalsOne to you seem fair,Love will waft it till it settlesOn your hair.
And when wind and winter hardenAll the loveless land,It will whisper of the garden,You will understand.
In brief
SummaryThe speaker sends his wife a copy of his poems with a short verse note. He says he can write no grand preface, only a few words 'From a poet to a poem', treating her as the poem. He calls the poems 'fallen petals' and hopes that if even one seems fair to her, love will carry it to settle on her hair. When wind and winter harden 'the loveless land', that petal will whisper of the garden, and she will understand what the poet leaves unsaid.
Key themes
"From a poet to a poem"
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The first stanza is an apology. The speaker says, 'I can write no stately proem / As a prelude to my lay': he has no grand introduction to offer his book. All he dares to say is what passes 'From a poet to a poem', a phrase that treats his wife herself as a poem, the finest thing he could present to her.
The second stanza calls the contents of the book 'fallen petals'. If one of them 'to you seem fair', then 'Love will waft it till it settles / On your hair', like a blossom blown by the wind and worn without effort.
The third stanza looks ahead to a harder time: 'when wind and winter harden / All the loveless land', the petal 'will whisper of the garden', and 'You will understand'. The poem does not say what she will understand. The petal will keep the memory of summer and love alive in a cold season, and speak for the poet when he is not there to speak.
Characters
The poet
A husband sending his poems
The speaker, who presents his wife with a copy of his poems. He disclaims any grand preface, calls his poems 'fallen petals', and hopes that at least one of them will stay with her and speak of the garden when winter comes.
His wife
The poem he addresses
Named only in the title, she is the 'poem' to whom the poet speaks. He imagines a petal from his book settling 'On your hair', and trusts that in a loveless winter she 'will understand'.
Themes
Modesty and devotion
The poem is deliberately small. The speaker has 'no stately proem', calls his work 'fallen petals', and hopes only that 'One' of them may 'seem fair'. The modesty is itself a compliment: set beside his wife, whom he calls a poem, the book can only be an offering. The short lines, some of just a few words, suit a private note.
Memory against winter
The last stanza imagines a time 'when wind and winter harden / All the loveless land'. Against that cold, one petal from the book 'will whisper of the garden'. The poems become keepsakes that carry love into hard seasons, and the closing 'You will understand' trusts the reader to supply what the poet leaves unsaid.
Quotes
"From a poet to a poem"
The poem
"Love will waft it till it settles"
The poem
"It will whisper of the garden"
The poem
Context
The title and subtitle frame the poem as an inscription: it is addressed 'To My Wife' and subtitled 'With a Copy of My Poems'. It is a presentation verse, a private note in the form of a lyric, with three quatrains rhyming in alternate lines. Its lines shrink toward the end of each stanza, down to 'On your hair' and 'You will understand'.
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