Decorative Value

instinctive seriousness
            material abode
                        coy retired
thought or reverie
            the red rose came first
                        said a quaint German mystic
beige things
            real things
                        quite blank forgetfulness
passed in continuous dreaming
            two generations before
                        the somber expression
inmates fanciful
            an elegant diversion
                        the care of flocks
vulgarity seemed impossible
            struggling family pride
                        elegant gentleman farming
immemorial authority
            leaping through heaps of blazing straw
                        the meaning and consequences
a sustained freshness of regret
            languid and shadowy enough
                        delicately carved marble house
the richest flowers from the garden
            sincerely touched and awed
                        the presence of their images
devout circumspection
            the world of men and things
                        the velvet of the mosses
the marble plates slipped from their places
            the play of the sea-wind
                        the decorative value of the floor

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