They visited every day
For the grass, starry flowers
And space to play for hours.
In spring, peach trees burst into blossom
And the happy children feasted on fruit all autumn.
After a seven year visit with a Cornish ogre,
Summer saw the return of the owner,
A selfish giant who scared them away
With his gruff voice and a sign that said:
‘Trespassers will be prosecuted’.

He built around his garden a lofty wall
And the children had nowhere to play at all.
Without their happy voices the garden went to sleep.
In spring, when birds were nesting and flowers began to creep,
It was winter in the selfish giant’s garden,
Where the shivering peach trees forgot to blossom,
The lawn was covered in a blanket of snow
And all year round the North Wind blew.
The selfish giant couldn’t understand
Why the winter weather remained.

One morning as he lay in bed,
The giant heard a sound so sweet
That he rose to look out onto the street:
It was the musical tones of a linnet.
The hail had stopped rattling above his head,
The North Wind had dropped as if it were dead
And through the open window, a sweet scent drifted:
Children had crept through a hole in the wall
And climbed into the branches of every tree
That blossomed with white flowers.

Please visit Kim’s blog here to read the rest of this poem inspired by Oscar Wilde’s story