The Two Twilights Part 3

_Second Student:_

I like the canary better; Look, how he swells his throttle!

He gurgles like musical water That dances and sings in a bottle.

ABOVE.

_Second Mason:_

D'ye mind the students down in the grove Drinking their wine and beer?

That's an easy life they lead.

_First Mason:_

So do we up here When the weatherc.o.c.k points west And the look-off's clear.

_Third Mason:_

House-top Jim's the boy for work!

_First Mason:_

True for you, my dear.

(_Whistles "The Girl I Left Behind me."_)

BELOW.

_First Student:_

See the Dutchmen on those settees: Isn't it like the Rhine?

And the old church-tower up over the trees-- Kellner! Noch ein Stein!

_Third Student:_

I'd like to work with those masons there Half way up the sky.

The air is sweet where the pigeons build, And the world is all in their eye.

_Second Student:_

But "Love is of the valley:" the Gretchen and the Kellner Haunt the cheerful levels of the lower story.

Glory in the garret--comfort in the cellar: I will keep the comfort--you may take the glory.

ABOVE.

_First Mason:_

Look up at the pointers: they 're drawing close together; 'T is here we get the earliest news of sun, and moon, and weather; We can hear time's pulse a-ticking, with the whistling weatherc.o.c.k.

Drop your mortar-boards, my lads, it's coming twelve o'clock.

_Third Mason:_

Oh! it's hungry that I am with working in the wind, But there's a shawl and bonnet--below there: do you mind?

It's Molly with the dinner-pail: she's coming in the door.

Faith, my belly thinks my throat is cut this half an hour and more.

(_The church clock strikes the noon._)

A MEMORY

I came across the marsh to-night, And though the wind was cold, I stayed a moment on the bridge To note the paly gold

That lingered on the darkening bay; The creek which ran below Was frozen dumb; the dreary flats Were overspread with snow.

The college bell began to ring, And as the north wind blew Its distant janglings out to sea, I thought, dear Friend, of you;

And how one warm September day, While yet the woods were green, We strayed across the happy hills And this wide marsh between.

The hay-stacks dotted here and there The water-meadows wide: The even lines of sluices black Were filling with the tide.

Then this salt stream, now winter bound, Fled softly through the sedge, Retreating from the sparkling Sound; And there along its edge

We strolled, and marked the far-off sloops, And watched the cattle graze.

O'erhead the swallows rushed in troops, While bright with purple haze,

West Rock looked down the winding plain-- Ah! this was long ago; The summer's gone, and you are gone, As everything must go.

AMOURS Pa.s.sAGeRES

Light loves and soon forgotten hates, Heat-lightnings of the brooding summer sky-- Ye too bred of the summer's heat, Ye too, like summer, fleet-- Ye have gone by.

Walks in the woods and whispers over gates, Gay rivalries of tennis and croquet-- Gone with the summer sweet, Gone with the swallow fleet Southward away!

Breath of the rose, laughter of maids Kissed into silence by the setting moon; Wind of the morn that wakes and blows, And hastening night that goes Too soon--too soon!

Meetings and partings, tokens, serenades, Tears--idle tears--and coy denials vain; Flower of the summer's rose, Say, will your leaves unclose Ever again?

ON A MINIATURE

Thine old-world eyes--each one a violet Big as the baby rose that is thy mouth-- Set me a dreaming. Have our eyes not met In childhood--in a garden of the South?

Thy lips are trembling with a song of France, My cousin, and thine eyes are dimly sweet; 'Wildered with reading in an old romance All afternoon upon the garden seat.