When the speaker thinks of the person she loves, her mind doesn’t summon a face or a room—it builds a formal garden. Gold and crimson tulips stand in neat parterres, lilac leaves are just opening, and a pale marble statue keeps pouring water from an urn. The water bends in the wind and falls into the basin with a faint, bright tinkling, so the scene feels motionless and alive at the same time. Suddenly the beloved enters through a detail: a shawl the color of red violets flaring outward in strong curves, like the robes of a painted Madonna. That comparison lifts the beloved out of ordinary life and makes her seem idealized, almost sacred. The speaker’s emotion is reverent and full of longing, but also controlled and private. The overall mood is dreamy, lush, and quietly intense—admiration held at a distance, like a beautiful scene the speaker can picture but not quite step into.
Mise en Scene — Summary
When I think of you. Beloved, I see a smooth and stately garden With parterres of gold and crimson tulips And bursting lilac leaves.
There is a low-lipped basin in the midst. Where a statue of veined cream marble Perpetually pours water over her shoulder From a rounded urn.
When the wind blows. The water-stream blows before it And spatters into the basin with a light tinkling.
And your shawl — the colour of red violets — Flares out behind you in great curves Like the swirling draperies of a painted Madonna.