The text used in this work is by American poet Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931). Something of an eccentric, he was known for "performing" his poems, and as a side note, was also a suitor of poet Sara Teasdale. While Lindsay's work is dwarfed by other American poets such as Whitman, Emerson and Dickinson, his work possesses great charm and naivety. Within his body of work are a large number of short poems for children about the Moon. In this poem, a jaded young person describes a beautiful garden for us--but it isn't enough for them. Rather than staying in the garden, they take to the skies and see the more important flower of the ideal garden: the moon.
Oh, once I walked a garden
In dreams. 'Twas yellow grass.
And many orange-trees grew there
In sand as white as glass.
The curving, wide wall-border
Was marble, like the snow.
I walked that wall a fairy-prince
And, pacing quaint and slow,
Beside me were my pages,
Two giant, friendly birds.
Half swan they were, half peacock.
They spake in courtier-words.
Their inner wings a chariot,
Their outer wings for flight,
They lifted me from dreamland.
We bade those trees good-night.
Swiftly above the stars we rode.
I looked below me soon.
The white-walled garden I had ruled
Was one lone flower- the moon.