Yesterdays Part 13

When the wild bee is wooing the red clover, And the fair rose smiles on the b.u.t.terfly, Missing thy smile and kiss, O love, my lover, Who on G.o.d's earth so desolate as I?

My tortured senses new despair will borrow From those reminders of a vanished day, That was as full of joy as this of sorrow-- O beautiful, sad summer keep away!

A DIRGE

Death and a dirge at midnight; Yet never a soul in the house Heard anything more than the throb and beat Of a beautiful waltz of Strauss.

Dead, dead, dead, and staring, With a ghastly smile on its face; But the world saw only laughing eyes And roses, and billows of lace.

Floating and whirling together, Into the beautiful night, How little you dreamed of the ghastly thing I was hiding away from your sight.

Meeting your dark eyes' splendour, Feeling your warm, sweet breath, How could you know that my pa.s.sionate heart Had died a horrible death?

Died in its fever and fervour, Died in its beautiful bloom; And that waltz of Strauss was a funeral dirge, Leading the way to the tomb.

But you held my hand at parting, And I smiled back a gay good night; And you never knew of the ghastly corpse I was hiding away from your sight.

Yet whenever I hear the Danube-- Under its pulsing strain, I catch the wail of the funeral dirge, And my heart dies over again.

NOT ANCh.o.r.eD

My heart is like a ship that finds no rest, Tossed here and there upon the stormy breast Of loves of many hearts too oft conferred.

Thy love is like the harbour, safe and still, Into whose calm that ship may glide at will, Under the slope of G.o.d's Eternal Will.

So near the perfect peace that knows no word; Yet with an empty, white emotion stirred, It folds its wings like some contented bird.

At rest, and yet not _anch.o.r.ed_; and some day Out of the restful peace of this calm bay The winds of Fate will drift it far away.

THE NEW LOVE

I thought my heart was death chilled, I thought its fires were cold; But the new love, the new love, It warmeth like the old.

I thought its rooms were shadowed With the gloom of endless night; But the new love, the new love, It fills them full of light.

I thought the chambers empty, And proclaimed it unto men; But the new love, the new love, It peoples them again.

I thought its halls were silent, And hushed the whole day long; But the new love, the new love, It fills them full of song.

Then here is to the new love, Let who will sing the old; The new love, the new love, 'Tis more than fame or gold.

For it gives us joy for sorrow, And it gives us warmth for cold; Oh! the new love, the new love, 'Tis better than the old.

AN EAST WIND

The glitter of wheels far down the street (Ah me, and alack a day.) And I heard the thud of his horse's feet Beating a roundelay.

And I felt a little song coming, coming Over my lips as humming, humming, I turned my eyes that way.

Somebody pa.s.sed, who was wont to pause: (Ah me, and alack a day.) He bowed and smiled; yet for some cause The mirth went out of my lay.

A wind from the east rose, sighing, sighing, I felt my little song dying, dying, _She laughed as they rode away_.

CHEATING TIME

Kiss me, sweetheart. One by one Swift and sure the moments run.

Soon, too soon, for you and me Gone for aye the day will be.

Do not let time cheat us then, Kiss me often and again.

Every time a moment slips Let us count it on our lips

While we're kissing, strife and pain Cannot come between us twain.

If we pause too long a s.p.a.ce, Who can tell what may take place?

You may pout, and I may scold, Souls be sundered, hearts grow cold;

Death may come, and love take wings; Oh! a thousand cruel things

May creep in to spoil the day, If we throw the time away.

Let us time, the cheater, cheat, Kiss me, darling, kiss me, sweet.

ONLY A SLIGHT FLIRTATION