"I planted a hand" (from SingSong)

I planted a hand
And there came up a palm,
I planted a heart
And there came up balm.

Then I planted a wish,
But there sprang a thorn,
While heaven frowned with thunder
and earth sighed forlorn.
(1869)

This poem, while moody like the others has at least an instructive message to it. The valuing of hand and heart over wishes (the practical over fantasy) seems straightforward. The double possible meaning of palm both as the center of the hand and a shade-giving plant is a nice image for the former could evoke the idea of hand-holding while the later has a caring aspect to it. However, notice how the poem becomes much more interesting in the second stanza. The stanza itself is far more complex than the first: visually, symbolically, in its actual statement. It's as if she moved out of the nursery on the second verse. I just caught an image of CGR with one of her nieces or nephews on her lap reciting the first stanza to the child and then muttering the second as an aside to William or Lucy Rossetti - but that's a rather cynical fancy on my part. CGR is however, much more at home with the dark - the initial reads in a trite way, the second has depth. But it is the marriage of the two (light and dark) that make them both better. In typical fashion, we are left a bit uncomfortable by this poem.