Could I only aside have cast him. Oh, the whispering wind around us!) I am sure he knew when he held me fast, For I tried to go, and I would have passed, And the sky with its stars was filling. But he clasped me close when I would have fled, And his soul came out from his lips and said— Oh, the moon and the stars in glory!) I know that the grass and the leaves will not tell, That no being shall ever discover From the soul-speaking lips of my lover; And the moon and the stars that looked over Shall never reveal what a fairy-like spell Homer Greene [1853 MAY-MUSIC OH! lose the winter from thine heart, the darkness from thine eyes, And from the low hearth-chair of dreams, my Love-o' May, arise; And let the maidens robe thee like a white white-lilac tree, Oh! hear the call of Spring, fair Soul,—and wilt thou come with me? Even so, and even so! I will follow thee. Then wilt thou see the orange trees star-flowering over Spain, Or arched and mounded Kaiser-towns that molder mid Almain, Or through the cypress-gardens go of magic Italy? Oh! East or West or South or North, say, wilt thou come with me? Even so, or even so! Whither thou goest, I will go. I will follow thee. But wilt thou farther come with me through hawthorn red and white Until we find the wall that hides the Land of Heart's Delight? The gates all carved with olden things are strange and dread to see: But I will lift thee through, fair Soul. Arise and come with me! Even so, Love, even so! Lo, I follow thee. Rachel Annand Taylor [18 SONG FLAME at the core of the world, And flame in the red rose-tree; The one is the fire of the ancient spheres, The other is Junes to be; And, oh, there's a flame that is both their flames As strong as the fires of stars, For out of the infinite past it came Arthur Upson [1877-1908] A MEMORY THE Night walked down the sky The hair that swept your shoulders Was yellow, too, Your feet as they touched the grasses Shamed the dew. The Night wore all her jewels, And you wore none, But your gown had the odor of lilies Drenched with sun. And never was Eve of the Garden Or Mary the Maid More pure than you as you stood there And the sleeping birds woke, trembling, And my senses were faint with the fragrant And our lips found ways of speaking What words cannot say, Till a hundred nests gave music, And the East was gray. Frederic Lawrence Knowles [1869-1905] LOVE TRIUMPHANT HELEN'S lips are drifting dust; Drink the ocean's dreamless peace; Lost was Solomon's purple show Stately empires wax and wane- Lasts, though all the worlds lie waste There's a sight that blinds the sun, Language lovelier than words, Hue and scent that shame the rose, Wine no earthly vineyard knows, Ye who love have learned it true. -Dear, how long ago we knew! Frederic Lawrence Knowles [1869-1905] LINES LOVE within the lover's breast Burns like Hesper in the West, Till the day and night are done; Then, when dawn drives up his car— Lo! it is the morning star. Love! thy love pours down on mine, As the sunlight on the vine, As the snow rill on the vale, As a dewdrop on the rose As a sea-shell of the sea Ever shall I sing of thee. George Meredith [1828-1909] LOVE AMONG THE RUINS WHERE the quiet-colored end of evening smiles On the solitary pastures where our sheep Half-asleep Tinkle homeward through the twilight, stray or stop As they crop Was the site once of a city great and gay, (So they say) Of our country's very capital, its prince Ages since Held his court in, gathered councils, wielding far Now, the country does not even boast a tree, To distinguish slopes of verdure, certain rills Intersect and give a name to (else they run Where the domed and daring palace shot its spires O'er the hundred-gated circuit of a wall Bounding all, Made of marble, men might march on nor be pressed, Twelve abreast. |