ga^«wg»fct'a>yfaEKtt¥.("&^J^7'T.s{c5 (•OP^-RICHT DEPOSIT. The Song of Touth P O EMS By Blanche Shoemaker •v\^a(rt Boston: Richard G, Badger tll^e (5^orI)aiu press Copyright, tqo^, by Blanche Shoemaker All Rights Reserved. LIBRARY of CONGRESS Two CoDies Received FEB 5 1906 ^ Coiyriffht Entry ^ cojyriffm Entry ^ 'CLASS ^&c. NO, 75 35-^^ Printed at The G or ham Press, Boston, U.S.A. . . Look on these songs I dedicate to thee, Which thro' thee I began, zvhich thus I end. CONTENTS, PAGE Awakening 9 Song 10 Proximity 11 Sea Change 12 Dissatisfaction 13 Rain 14 Reluctance 15 Love's Maturity 16 The Inseparable 17 Love Eternal 18 Litany 19 Song 20 Silence 21 Love's Entirety 22 Love's Humility 23 Return 24 Love's Way 25 Love's Eternity 26 Regret 27 Absence ■ 28 God's Paradise 29 Freedom 30 The Burden 31 Compensation 32 Parting 33 The Gain 34 Fulfillment 35 Youth Eternal 36 The Unknozvn 37 Choice 38 At Dazvn 39 PAGE Desolation 40 Seasons 41 Revelation 42 To One No Longer Loved 43 The Theft 44 Surrender 45 Carpe Diem 46 Death-in-Love 47 The Dread Hour 48 Fear at Parting 49 Pastelle 50 The Prisoner 51 Rondel 52 Alliance 53 Completion 54 The Morrow's Joy 55 Vita Niiora 5^ Conclusion 57 Poverty 5^ Faithlessness 59 Rondel 60 Dawn 61 The Light 62 Love Let Dream No More 63 Renewal 64 Meeting and Parting 65 Loss 66 Solitude 67 Love's Hours 68 The Nun 69 Absence 7° Avowal 71 PAGE Life's Paradox 72 Riches 73 Intimations 74 Doubt 75 After Hours 7^ The Inevitable 77 The Trinity 7^ The Nomads 79 Fear 80 Attainment 80 The Infinite 81 The Climax 82 The Dream Foregone 83 Upliftment 84 Joy's Redemption 85 Ennui 86 Mockery 87 Faith's Folly 88 Oblivion 89 Love Alien 90 Opportunity 90 Unlived Hours 91 The Beginning 9^ Salvation 93 Repletion 94 Possession 95 AWAKENING As in sweet childhood's slumberous hours a hand In mother's tenderness seeks for the cheek Of the loved one, gently disturbing sleep Until the child soul stirs and leaves the land Of dreams and wakens, half afraid to speak, — So was I for long years within a deep And solemn slumber of the soul, until My heart heard thee approach, and then thy hand Waked me from dreams to Love's Reality. And like the child with speech and soul grown still Bewildered in my joy I looked on thee, — And Life grew sweet and I could understand. SONG A gracious gift is love, my sweet, A gift from God above, my sweet, A grace to take much of, my sweet. And they who love as we, my sweet, Are blest by ecstasy, my sweet, And fashioned fond and free, my sweet. We love and we are blest, my sweet, Life-love has been our quest, my sweet, What care we for the rest, my sweet ? So love e'er love shall die, my sweet. To keep love ours we'll try, my sweet, E'er joy end in a sigh, my sweet ! 10 PROXIMITY I shall be nearer to you far away ; For that injustice of the world's dumb right Restrains us when together every day. But in the voiceless hours of the long night Visions will bring us closer till I seem Unconscious that my joy is but a dream. II SEA-CHANGE The sadness of the sea Rose up to me Speaking of hours forgot, Hours that are not, And ne'er again can be ! The longing of the sea Rose up to me ; Speaking of wants grown old Desires untold, And dreams that could not be. The wistfulness of the sea Rose up to me ; Speaking of hours gone past, Regrets that last 'Till memories cease to be ! The gladness of the sea Rose up to me ; Speaking of joys in store Love evermore, And happiness to be ! The great Love of the sea Rose up to me ; Filling my heart with bliss ! Sweeter than this No Paradise could be! Nice, March. 12 DISSATISFACTION Aye, I am happy — so the whole world says Envying me life's contentment and soul's peace. And all the sunny blessings of my ways ! I want not these, — rather a soul's release From bondaged Joy . . the old forbidden gaze Of loving eyes, and Love's poor, frenzied days ! 13 RAIN The ni^ht about is still, the sea Sleeps passive on the shore, yet my soul hears The raindrops falling on the ground Silent as tears Shed without sound . . As the rain falls ceaselessly So I love thee Ceaselessly ! 14 RELUCTANCE Love, I cannot lose you yet ! Life has not been lived, so let Life and love awhile remain, Till both we have tasted of. Then let Life and Love both wane. Dear, I dare not die today When your love desires me stay, Life is ours to live and I Live but for your precious love, — Sweet, today I dare not die ! Of the future I know not. Yesterday is soon forgot, But today life is our own. Love is dear to love and prove. Sweet, I dare not go alone! 15 LOVE'S MATURITY I dreamed that Love had reached maturity. And stood full-grown and perfect by my side With still'd desires and passions satisfied, The sweet embodiment of ecstasy. With fond maternal pride I looked upon The being I had reared so perfectly, Symbol of all the joy my soul had won. But as I knelt beside the shrine of this My vision, lo ! There rose within me wild Longings tempestuous . . I woke from bliss To find my love was yet a little child ! i6 THE INSEPARABLE To A. There is no part of life that knows not you. No corner of my life that has not been Made sweeter by you ; not a day has seen Its golden death but you have watched it too. No sun has shed its dawn upon my soul, No Spring has come, nor sight of a heart's woe, No living hour of life that does not know You and love's ways, inseparable and whole! 17 LOVE ETERNAL As a fond child who wakes amazed to find 1 hat It IS nearing- its maturity, Kejoicmg leaves its unwaked world behind — bo was It when Your love first stirred in me Wakmg a dormant soul with ecstasy Tu ''^^^T ?^ ^ "^^^^^^ ^o^^d dreamed of Ihus did Life come to me, making Your Love A proud possession, — mine Eternally » iS LITANY Soul of my soul, fashioned for love, Out of the sea of my life's desires, — (Lord, thou art kind to a soul that aspires !) Grant me abandonment ! Remove The burden of passion grown too old . . Soul of my soul, fashioned for love, Out of the sea of my youth's desires, (Lord, thou art kind to a soul that aspires !) Grant me abandonment ! Remove The burden of love-tamed and love untold . Soul of my soul, fashioned for love. Out of the sea of my soul's desires (Lord, thou art kind to a soul that aspires!) Grant me abandonment ! Remove The burden of denial when love is by! Soul of my soul, fashioned for love, Out of the sea of my lost desires, (Lord, thou art kind to a soul that aspires !) Grant me abandonment! Remove The burden of unlived hours that die ! 19 SONG "I love you, sweet ! I love you endlessly." What infinite joy these words invoke for me ; The meaning of all life their utterance Without which life would cease. Merely to say I love you, love you throughout one whole day Delights my spirit, seeming to enhance The charm of living since so merged in yours. Mine is an endless love that e'er endures, Supreme in yielding, — happiest to repeat "I love you, love you endlessly, my Sweet!" Nice, April lo. 20 SILENCE Silence is meant for love. Songless the sound of the summer sea, Breathless the soul with expectancy, Hushed the long hours rapturously, Silence is meant for love. Silence is meant for love. Stilled is the song of the swallow-band, Languor wanders throughout love's land. Mute the caress of a loving hand, Silence is meant for love. 21 LOVE'S ENTIRETY To H. The anguish of deHght one feels to wane ; The pang of joy diminishing, and love Grown cold and passionless within the heart. Remembrance verged into Regret again And that desire of joy once tasted of A vague fear of the future that will part Me wholly from my joyfulness. A sense Of happiness grown old, and perishing Within my soul the sweetness of all things ' Life's essence dwindling, dear love going hence, My joy each long hour aging with the Spring As dies the song some outcast swallow sings. 22 LOVE'S HUMILITY Humbly I lay myself down at thy feet And beg thy mercy and they help ; O, sweet, Sorrow has chastened my desires and tears Made pure a heart that has known passionate years. Give ear unto my plaintive plea and make A love's allowance for our old love's sake; And when I come, Beloved, disdain me not But for the sake of love, once our glad lot. Help me with tenderness, for, look! I lay My helpless soul down at thy feet today ! 23 RETURN Dear, I have naught to offer thee In return for all the poesy Thou hast given me through thy love. Golden gifts I have none of Nor sweet ways gleaned from above; Love itself we deem divine Therefore, dear, I offer mine Meagre though it is I give Every hour of life I live. Every pulse of mine is thine, — Soul and sense, desire and speech All things that are in Love's reach I lay at Love's shrine. Be content, dear, I give all That is in my power to call. 24 LOVE'S WAY Could Love but have its way! - Then Life would sweeter grow And tears shed long ago Would turn to laughter at Love's play, — Could Love but have its way ! Could Love but have its way! Dear hands would loose the bars That keep us from the stars ; And Love's height would be reached one day- Could Love but have its way! Could Love but have its way! E'er by denial 'tis slain. Quench all the longing pain In one long-dreamed caress and say: "Let Love but have its way !" 25 LOVE'S ETERNITY Question not my love, dear heart, it is too great. It stands a towering scheme of happiness 'Neath which sweet-sheltered resting place I wait The morrow's certainty of joy. Unless You choose to love me more, Belov'd, than this, Doubt not my fondness for it lies as deep As some unconquerable scheme in bliss Flows on, unheeding snows and storm. I weep With joy to think I love you so, for we Inhabit Love's divine Eternity. 26 REGRET Dear, when my hour to die shall come And Love has grown forever dumb, And o'er my soul Death's shadows creep, Before I go at last to sleep Beloved let Me utter but the one regret My soul shall keep. Dear, there are few wrongs I have done I would undo ; of sins not one Would I resign. But, these above, I grieve for love we knew not of. Did we always Live to the full in our past days? Took we sufficient Love? 27 ABSENCE I find no peace where thou art not ; I pass From scene to scene and all things seem the same. Day differs not from night ; Life has no aim For in Love's absence all is void ; alas There is no joy apart from you. I pace From dawn to dark seeking a resting place Wherein to find oblivion of my love. No corner of the world that knows not of Your ways or holds no memories of your face. Here was it that we parted ; or close by First fell your tears or first I heard you sigh . . Thus do I wander, ever coveting To find love and love's peace one day and bring Lost life back to my heart before I die! 28 GOD'S PARADISE Thou art more perfect than God's Paradise. Sweeter by far than violets bloomed in May, Fonder and fairer than the heavenly prize, God's Paradise. Fuller of ripened life than ripest day, Youth glowing in the gladness of thine eyes. Sweet-living perfectly, — could life devise God's Paradise To rival thee, Beloved, in any way? Being so perfect, dear, within thee lies God's Paradise; And if in loving thee, love takes away My right to heav'n, I gain in thee the prize — God's Paradise! 29 FREEDOM Oh, to be freed from Yesterday ! And as a bird take wings and fly away, From where pain was into the paths that know No sorrow or heart's woe . . To merely spread my wings and wish to go ; Thus leaving life and all its goblets drained, For wine of other loves and hours, — For distant scents of unknown flow'rs, — For paths of joy more unconstrained. Oh, to be freed from Yesterday And as a bird take wings and soar away ! 30 THE BURDEN The burden of lost-living; days that cry Like plaintive children to be nursed again. Lips that were once allied apart in pain, Desires once urgent that submissive lie, And blissful hours of ease that mockingly, Like unbloomed flowers arise in ghostly glee. . . The burden of lost-living; a caress That maddens in its unreturningness ! 31 COMPENSATION The warm grass under my heart ; Above me the kindly sky, Bird-songs thrilling the air, Faint shadows wandering by. . . My soul the while aware That you and I are apart. The grass grown over my heart, My body enwrapped in clay ; Bird-songs stilled, and the air, Emptied of Love away, . . My soul the while aware You and I are no more apart. 32 PARTING ''Farewell?" how could I say it dear? The world would fade before my sight ; Sound cease, and day give way to night Eternal darkness reappear . . Yesterday's ghost of Joy would come To mock the Morrow's barrenness. Hope cowering as unhappiness Would hover by with lips struck dumb. And Love outcast, with wails unheard Would wander with affrighted eyes To where men's hopes have ceased to rise. ''Farewell ?" I do not know the word ! 33 THE GAIN Lost, loved and soul-lamented, dear, our ways Were severed yesterday. You are no more And in the memory of our Joy I pour My poor, heart's sadness over our dear days. Lost, loved and soul-lamented, dear. The pain Of parted lips and hands that no more meet, The solace of some future days too sweet, — Yet, losing you, I lose you but to gain ! 34 FULFILLMENT My soul within me stirs as some starved, unquiet bird; Restless with instincts unappeased, hunger un- heard, Passions ungratified and yearnings that have stirred No sympathy in any one. Thus passed the years Of loneliness and waste desire watered with my tears, — Unceasingly the same, and no applause that cheers Or agonized fulfillment of old want laid bare Can compensate for all the Past. My soul has care Of love — and love alone. The longing that can dare The past's old desire, the future's unreality . . Thus stirs my soul, craving to be once free In love's fulfillment ; the Real hour that longs to be! 35 YOUTH ETERNAL Youth with its flowered hours and sunny ways, Its brilliant hopes that mounting, soar on higfh, Craving to live in each excessive phase, Loving dear life, dreading the hour to die. Youth with its frenzied eagerness to prove Experience, and thirsting for its joy. Glad at the dawn, the noon, the night, and love — The food and sustenance its wants employ. Youth without change or end, dawn without night, Succession of exuberant ecstasy, One long, sweet paean of passionate delight, — This is my dream of an Eternity. 36 THE UNKNOWN Bewildered, dazed, you left me with your love ; Dreaming of joys I knew not how to prove. And stunned into submission by caress, Yours was the right to humble me or bless My soul with lasting love's dear happiness. But ah, I was a child, afraid to guess. At what it dared to take so little of. 37 CHOICE Ah who of us has loved and yet would not? Which one would not reclaim the old time pain Just to renew the rapture once again ; The hours memorial and unforgot. Ah who of us loved well would not once more Endure the ecstasy intolerable, — The joy of hope, the final tears that tell The sad tale of a love that has passed o'er. Ah who of us has loved and yet would say : "Give me the loveless, unimpassioned way?" 38 AT DAWN She looks on me with cold, cruel eyes that speak Dark Hatred, and the lips that last night said A thousand times I love you, are compressed, And ashy white the pallor of her cheek, — Flow'rs are fled In the flower-like fair face and breast, — Thus do we gaze into each others' eyes. Poor spectres watchful of their loves demise : Passion is dead. 39 DESOLATION How long the days are, dear, without The comfort of your love ; how sad The silence of the night when tears Cannot appease . . Were I to doubt You, dearest, all the joy I had Would dwindle in the dust of years. 40 SEASONS While Spring is here and sweet the amorous hours, The evening- breezes fragrant with June flowers, The long nights flushed with Love's expectancy, The days divined for youth, all redolent of Life's glad springtime of youthful mystery. . . The Spring is here, — yet, God ! we cannot love! But while December hangs upon the heart. Its passionless hours that rend a love apart, And dim the days and void of soul's delight, A shadowy darkness over everything, — Yet, through the wintry and unending night. We love ! And then our souls discover Spring ! 41 REVELATION What is the surest way to show my love? Reveal the tenderness my full heart holds, And all my passionate adoration prove? Shall all the loveliness my love beholds In thee be praised in love's sublimest tongue ? Shall hands that worship crown thee god among His worshippers ? Or shall I wreathe thy way With simple flowers grown in a youthful heart ? What glowing words of eloquence could say The half of how I love ? Love is a part Of life as is the sunlight at day's break, — Love without birth or end, unceasing, sweet. . . Ah, I shall only love, bowed at thy feet. Giving myself to thee for love's sweet sake ! 42 TO ONE NO LONGER LOVED We love no more ; the fire of youth has died Within our hearts ; for long we strove to hide The truth, until the truth untruth beHed! We love no more ; and Life's significance Has dwindled in the dawning of a glance ; Love can no longer our poor lives enhance. We love no more! Vanished is youth's sweet sense And age has lost its passionate recompense. . . This is the end our destiny invents! 43 THE THEFT Lonely and sad her soul sought mine and laid Its sorrows at my feet and much afraid Begged help of me . . and I, filled with delight Calmed her distress and stayed her in her flight Until her wings fluttered no more and she Found rest within a harbor happily . . I gave her all I had and from my hands She took my offerings as one who stands The rightful owner of its Joy ; until My life impoverished grew . . And I, the keeper, knew The hungered soul at length had had its fill. And lo ! one day I found her gone . . and then I prayed she might take my poor life again ! London. 44 SURRENDER How shall I keep your love? By what sweet schemes Or subterfuge devised with utmost skill, — Or passionate protestations that will fill Your heart with certitude? Devotion seems Unending when one loves and yet love fears From day to day its end eventual ; Devotion's dismal death whose dear recall Is vanished e'en beyond reclaiming tears . . Therefor I seek to keep thy love, retain The flower of fondness and the bloom of need, The freshness of delight, the joy in pain, The glow of eager want. Dear, if I plead Close-kneeling at your feet submissively Will Love's surrender hold your love for me? 45 CARPE DIEM Live in the Present, dear ; 'tis all thou hast. What share have we within the happiest Past When memory's visions dim and no things last? What do we own of all the future's store? Uncertain joys allure us o'er and o'er Yet, when the morrow comes we own no more. What of past tears, or days of love gone by ; We have but little of their wine, and why? Because as all things live, so all things die ! What of this hour? What of Love's hastened night ? — 'Tis all we have to call our own aright : This is Love's bitterness and Love's delight! 46 DEATH-IN-LOVE The dawn glows in the East ; without the day Grows into gladdened May. The hopes our hearts have borne ; The desires our joys have fed, Love's deeds we have foreborne, The wealth our souls have worn, — All cease . . Can Love be dead? The fire dies on the hearth ; without the night Wanes into undelight ; The songs once sung, the words our hearts have said, The lips our lips have wrung Are stilled and lie among Life's ashes . . Love is dead ! 47 THE DREAD HOUR Dear, if the hour should ever come when we Should undesiring meet each others' eyes — Unlonging for the kiss that satisfies A labored love, long lost to mastery Then I should take your hand and' gently say Beloved, the dream is past . . we meet to lay Ine soul of our old love fore'er away." Ah, let us now be happy while we may. 48 FEAR AT PARTING Beloved, I cannot let you go from me 1 Into the great world's wide and questioning gaze, Forgetful of our vanished joyous days, Recalling happiness but dubiously. Beloved, I cannot let you go from me ! Beloved, I dare not let you go from me, To leave me lonely with but love's recall. To thus deflower my ways of life and all The sunny blessings of Love's harmony. Beloved, I dare not let you go from me. 49 PASTELLE With troubled eyes and lips bereft of speech, Nearer I leaned to where my soul saw you. Only the joy of a last lingering view Before you were beyond my spirit's reach. Only a look, Belov'd, and that was all, To leave me lonely without Love's respite, Only a touch of hands to help me call Love back — and then you went into the night! 50 THE PRISONER I am the prisoner of my love for thee. Fettered in fondness, bound in loving bond, Imprisoned in ties of loving fantasy With ne'er a thought, desire, or dream beyond Love's bondaged hours of intimacy fond. Alone art thou impow'red to set me free ; Thy lips my sole release and liberty Arousing life again. Ah, sweet, although I seem love's prisoner, 'tis not wholly so; For though the prisoner of my love, I know Love's liberation but in loving thee ! 51 RONDEL Born within my soul that stirred In sweet pride at being's start, Born to utter love's first word — Child of my heart! Reared in safest care apart, From the tainting world and heard As the cadence of my heart. Fondness that love's lips averred, All my own till death's cold dart Pierce the love my soul preferred — Child of my heart! 52 ALLIANCE Your image is immured within my heart . . Dear love, and as the vacant hours go by My way is bright as, are the Heavens that He Illumed by stars at night. We are apart And yet, when tears into my own eyes start I hear your soul within my own soul cry. We are incorporate, belov'd, — as one Sole being we exist ; in joy or woe Our pulses quicken or our hearts grow slow Together with vague fears ; when life is done Thus shall we die united with love won For all Eternity! Forever so. Biarritz. S3 COMPLETION Life has no more in it, belov'd, for we Have drained the cup of happiness until Our Hps grew mute with too much ecstasy. Infatuate love, have we not had our fill Of that delicious joy so few can know? Have we not lived so fully that to go Back through the love-thronged past would sure- ly seem Like threading one's way through a vanished dream ? . . Life has no more in it, Belov'd, — Our hands Have touched upon the Joy of God's own lands. 54 THE MORROW'S JOY Oh, God be praised for the dear morrow's joy, For that undawned, desired day's deHght Which is a balm to souls long comfortless ; Oh Solace that no Time can e'er destroy, Sad hope's delirium, spirit's luring sight, Leading me into fancied happiness. 55 VITA NUOVA Satiated with things insatiable, — My heart o'er- wearied from Love known too well. My soul's flight broken by desires that dwell Too deeply rooted, undeniable, — . . One day You looked on me with kindly eyes Wherein I saw the dawn of new Life rise, And all my senses in a mute surprise, Unwearied, woke to dawn that never dies. 56 CONCLUSION Sweet, let life end for us e'er dear love wane, A poor, neglected shadow by our sides ; Speechless and wan, whose every sight derides The old, mad moments of reality When love was sweet and seemed not sad or vain. Let death o'er-creep our souls a welcome friend Saving the sorrow of seeing our love end, — With lips on lips in close kissed sympathy. Then let death come . . We shall be spared the pain Of poor love perishing and poor love's wane ! 57 POVERTY To A. W. Before the greatness of thy love I stand Cowering- and dumb ; as one touched by the hand Of some Divinity. I am afraid To take the Happiness thy love has laid At my poor feet. Alas, my soul is planned For poverty alone. Thou dost demand A love as great as thine own love is grand. I cannot give what thou dost want, — dismayed Before a love like thine I turn away. I am too poor ! Leave me to go my way. 58 FAITHLESSNESS Just as a child brings forth its most prized toy Giving it to its mother's hand to hold, Trusting and fond in its first confidence, — So was it when we parted. A heart's joy Was mine when deep within the nurtured fold Of your dear arms I laid a trust ; and thence We went our ways . . but after many years When I returned, our love was bathed in tears. For, dear, I found you faithless and my trust A heart's poor idol shattered into dust. 59 RONDEL Out of the darkness, like a star that falls, — Sweeter and stranger than a sudden thought, The wakening of delight that never palls — So Love is wrought. Out of the day as out of dawn that caught The sudden refluence of a wave that calls In accents sweet the tune its own heart taught, Once flashed the dear delight my soul ap- palls, — A touch of hands, a kiss our lips have sought, — Just as life dawns thus my glad soul recalls So Love is wrought. 60 DAWN I have seen the dawn, Beloved, from where we stand, The past looms sweet in sadness and the days To come are glad to our heart's eager gaze . . For years we have traversed the dark, our ways. Apart so long, — but now, give me your hand And we shall journey to the Promised Land. 6i THE LIGHT As one who looks into the dark and sees Afar the gHmmer of a light half-hid, And, fearing, wonders if on hands and knees He could attain the light, and thereby rid His anxious soul of all the unlit ways, — So was I groping in the dark of days Without your love . . Beyond, it shimmered sweet Beckoning me on, until with faltering feet I reached the light of Love's felicities! 62 LOVE LET US DREAM NO MORE Love let us dream no more, we must awake! Forgetting all the dreamful days and shake The slumber from our souls for Love's sweet sake. Long have we dreamed and slumbered ; now the day Of wakening comes, let us love while we may. No more can visionary joys serve well As those dear intimate hours of Love's sweet spell, — For ah, Reality alone can tell The meaning of all life, and right our wrong. We must awake and live for we have slumbered long. 63 RENEWAL Let me one moment find forgetfulness of thee. For one hour's space be quit of Love's bonds binding me; Gay to behold the world and laugh again and see Thing^s sweet or sad thro' eyes not steeped in mystery. And then, dear one, having seen my heart once free Let me return afresh to Love and loving thee ! 64 MEETING AND PARTING To G. C. Soul that was joy to meet, Meeting too sadly sweet, Sweetest because so fleet, — Soul that was joy to meet! . . All that we love will pass, Sweet things die first, alas. And ripened love dies just As unripe passion must. Soul that I met and passed. Touched hands and longed to love Meeting to part ; what of The spell that could not last? 65 LOSS Were I to lose thee dear, what then? In all Life's lonely way there'd be Only a shadow of memoried harmony. Oblivion where joy was and pain, In place of bliss, the heavy dread Of vacant, loveless hours to come, And for delight a heart grown numb. Eyes blind through tears unceasing shed. Were I to lose thee dear, why then Life would forsake me ne'er to come again. 66 SOLITUDE I cannot live in loneliness ; the hours Droop into nothingness as fading flow'rs, Deprived of sunshine, fall into the grave. My soul is restive ; I forever crave Companionship. Life is our own to live, Yet we deny our longings, too soon give The soul its prison bars. All solitude Is sin against the soul that seeks to soar. Alone, my being starves, without heart-food, Life will succumb till love return no more! 67 LOVE'S HOURS The close-companioned hours of sympathy, When with joined hands and meeting lips, the day Of final Joy seems not so far away ; These are the hours that mean so much to me ! When sheltered in your arms most tenderly, Kissed overmuch and re-born in your heart, The severing day not drawing us apart ; These are the hours that mean so much to rne ! The subtle Joy of Love's first harmony, The mystery of lips articulate. When souls re-born in hope anticipate The life-long Love — these hours mean much to me ! 68 THE NUN Oh wasted life of lovelessness. Thou hast Not had thine hour of joy ; Life has grown past Thy passionless reach, love is beyond recall . . . Only the dim and unlit way awaits ; Thy prayers must comfort when thy wants appall, Thy sinless nights make palely chaste thy cheek, Thy life renounced make sweet what thy soul hates. . . Lone vigil of desire grown old and weak, — The desert of virginity that knows Instead of love's oasis death's repose. 69 ABSENCE "Where art thou, love, to-night?" my starved soul cries Seeking within the darkness for your eyes, — Groping for lips afar. My soul replies : "Thou art not here" and life within me dies ! Why art thou not beside me sweet, I cry! Heart-harbored in our love we two could lie Oblivious of the world, passing life by, — Yet love, thou wilt not come until I die. 70 AVOWAL Sweet sheltered spot of Love's first utterance ; Lulled by the melody of water's song, Close-shadowed in the intimate dusk-time long And sweetened by a first impassioned glance, — Paths odorous with fragrance of pale flow'rs When hand close held in hand and heart on heart Lured by the loveliness of Love's first hours, We wandered wakening to each loving art, — Two mingling souls that met when love-lips met, Within a heaven of joyous mystery, With Love's avowal heart-uttered . . Ah hfe, let Us wander thus into Eternity. 71 LIFE'S PARADOX Souls that have Hved ! To thee I offer praise, A reverential homage for the days Brimful of garnered blisses ye have known ; Hours of oblivious joy, which death alone Could lessen of their charm . . Ah ye who live Or ye who in the wayward Past have sown The Joy of Life, — to thee all praise I give ! Souls that have never lived ! But died without Desiring life, — for thee I sadly weep. Ye who are wrapped in that eternal sleep Knowing not of joy, or what life was about. What compensated for your loss ? The years Of passive lethargy, — the barren heights Lost to the loveliest of Love's delights? . . For ye, poor souls, the world sheds all its tears ! 72 RICHES She is rich of body yet sad at heart. Weighed down with the wealth of the world, she dwells In a realm of satisfied ease, with a part Of love for her own ; yet her forced smile tells She is rich of body yet poor of heart. She is poor of body, yet glad at heart. Deprived of the world's rich store she dwells Impoverished, alone, and from wealth apart ; Yet the peaceful smile on her wan face tells She is poor of body yet rich of heart ! 73 INTIMATIONS To J. Today we loved and yet today we part, — Glad in the memory of our perfect love ; Love not yet blossomed to the full, sweetheart, But fair and fragile, sparely taken of. When loving lips met mine, dear one, I thought Of sweeter hours to come, and sorrowed not At parting from you. For love this day wrought Sweet intimations of love's future lot ! 74 DOUBT Would God that I were dead rather than doubt Your dear, desired love for me. Because My soul could never wholly do without. Let me accept your fondness, for the flaws In passion one is happiest not to seek. So love, your lips appeased upon my cheek. And then, — oblivion of the hours about ! 75 AFTER HOURS What follows after Love? As in the wake Of golden hours of day, close follows night Deflowering life of all its dear delight ; So oft, it is with love, if we will take. So we must face the aftermath and make Remembrance compensate. What follows after love ! alas we know Only too well the solitude to be, W^ith lips estranged, hearts void of sympathy And eyes wherein love long has ceased to glow. Oh dead desire, oh love-sweet long ago, — Can memory compensate? 76 THE INEVITABLE The hour I fear above all other hours, — The power I fear above all other powers, — The dread, inevitable day when we must meet Estranged and passionless ; having lived the sweet Strong hours of loving through until they ceased ; 'Till Love's extravagance made Love appeased ! 77 THE TRINITY We met and loved, and now, dear one, we part ! Thou to thy world unknown to me, and I To where thy memory will never die. Since love so deep is rooted in my heart. We met and loved . . and now, dear one, fare- well ! Fondly clasp hands in love immutable ; And let me go my way. Thou mayst depart Yet where Love is, I am, and so thou art ! 78 THE NOMADS Wandering ever on the face of earth From dark to dawn, — this is their part from birth. Happy and free in Nature's constancy With ne'er a care of any other day vSave that which is ; the sweet immunity From toil, ambitions or regrets that weigh. Proud in their carelessness, unshamed to meet The morrow's great uncertainty, and free Each morn from Life's distasteful yesterday. Wand'ring beneath the stars in night-times sweet Into Eternity Without a fear, a hope, regret or tie. Happy until shall dawn their day to die ! 79 FEAR Bowed down beneath the burden of a love He cannot hope to bear, man shrinking stands, Weighed down by Cowardice with trembhng hands Fearing what he has known so Httle of ! ATTAINMENT We reached Love's height but yesterday, and drew The fullness from Life's cup, intent to rue The long, slow hours that had led up to it. Upon the summit now we pause, and sit With arms entwined, looking upon the past Our happy lips allied unto the last — Eternal Ecstasy made exquisite ! 80 THE INFINITE Immeasurably I love thee dear, as one In yearning for the infinite, finds that near Love is, — wherein life ends and is begun! 'Tis vain to try to utter to thee, dear, How great my fondness is. Words can express Only a portion of our happiness Never a heart that cared as mine could tell How much it loved ! Mayhap it be too well. Nimes, April, 1905. 81 THE CLIMAX To A. W. Beloved, what is the end of all our Joy ? What climax of delight shall our souls reach, — What measures shall we finally employ In efforts to maintain our love in each. Thro' years of struggle we shall come at last To some sweet, summit of soul's ecstasy, And then what will the after-moments be? A new world found? — or sighs for joys gone past? 82 THE DREAM FOREGONE Today there was no dawn, Beloved ; the morn Came changeless o'er the sky and found me worn And weary with my vigil of the night ; Ah love, thou didst not come and in my plight I prayed for death rather than see the light. . . At last through lack of love the night-time waned. And peace, the peace my soul had but regained, — Gave way to nameless anguish unconstrained ; Before my famished sight the dayHght crept, — Day without dawn or joy and poor Love wept A specter of unwelcomeness forlorn. 83 UPLIFTMENT Blest, dear, among all women in the blessing of thy love, Sublimely blest in passionate quest, Divinely raised among those praised On mortal earth to realms of heavenly praise above. Sweetened and strengthened in the sweetness of thy love, Immortal made through love's sure aid Richly endowed, passionately proud, Thus dwells my soul full-blest soaring in realms above. 84 JOY'S REDEMPTION Oh world of joy disclosed this day of days! Oh dawning of delights so manifold My soul re-born, rejoices to behold. The sudden sweetness of this day repays A spirit's past of loveless, unlit ways. Oh world of Joy renounced in hours grown old. This day's delight will all my life remould ! 85 ENNUI The meanings of all things expire, — The sun fades o'er my way and night's desire Is paled into fatigue; Oh soul of mine That sees no joy or interest anywhere Why art thou blind and worn? Life once was thine The maddest life Love gave to man's despair, Riotous hours of passionate delight — Of wine-red lips and roses reddening night . . This is a death-in-life ; oh love, love's tire, — The languid lapse of souls from their desire ! 86 MOCKERY Hours that were once so sweet, ah mock me not ! Look not upon my loveless days with scorn. Now that my plight is changed, have I forgot The joyous hours that once were all to me? Oh old-time memories ! oh sympathy Sublime and lost, — lost e'er it was reborn. Hours once so passing sweet, ah mock me not ! 87 FAITH'S FOLLY The folly of perfect faith, — alas ! though we Bow at the shrine of the sublimest god The hour will come when our idolatry Will serve as naught, and we shall kneeling see The shattered remnants of our shrine down- trod. Put not your trust in things that are, but lay Faith in the coming of an undawned day ! 88 OBLIVION Ah, would that I could find oblivion From thee and Love, the twain that rend my heart ! For I have striven even to depart From love of thee through absence, but I won My victory but to find surrender when Thou didst return to re-possess again. It is contending with a force of Life To leave thee, when the power of life contrives To bind inseparably our separate lives. For were the world less of thee, — days less rife Of thy reflected loveliness, then I Could leave thee in my wilderness to die. 89 LOVE ALIEN Yea, I am rich in worldly goods, — the fire Of flesh is in abeyance and my hands Are full of flowers from the fairest lands. Yet I am sad ; to what I do aspire I cannot have, for love in silence stands An alien to my heart and heart's desire ! OPPORTUNITY Look how life passes hourly, dear, and we Stand by with hopeful hearts that have no speech. The fruit of life is here within our reach Yet we are blind and disinclined to see. Each moment Joy grows less and Youth departs And shadows dim to-morrow's mystery, While Time on wings of fire burns rapidly Over the embers of our aging hearts. Life is so fleet ! and Opportunity Is but a moment's breath that unfanned dies, And love will wither here before my eyes E'er I have had the share that was for me. 90 UNLIVED HOURS Hours that have never been ! Sweet hours that yearn To be ; and fond longings that ceaselessly Beg life, and dreams that crave Reality. These are the daily sorrows that I turn O'er in my soul, lamenting joy unknown ; An undawned day's delight tormenting me With its unknown, imaged felicity, And bliss unrecognized in days long flown. . . Hours that have never been, — Love's hours that yearn To be, — ah, dear, from these I cannot turn ! 91 THE BEGINNING To A. W. A touch of hands, — my soul again is born Into a realm sublime of wondrous ease, Full of the calm of Love's first mysteries, And freed from fetters that so long were worn. A touch of lips, — beyond my soul's recall, And then the wakening of a sterile heart, A glimpse of Love's Eternity! Thou art The beginning of all things, the end of all ! 92 SALVATION Lift me that I may see the dawn again ! Put back the misery of a heart's worn pain, Give me the gHmpse of joy that will not wane. Raise me that famished glances once may gaze Upon the flowered foot paths of Love's ways, Illumined by the light of future days. Lift me that I may once, contented, see Dawn breaking o'er our worn world wistfully, And then, — a vision of our souls set free! 93 REPLETION My love of You fills all my nights and days ; There are no more relentless dawns that cry To my poor heart "why is your love not by?" For everywhere I turn, where'er I gaze, My soul sees you and love, the twain whose praise I could die chanting. Lo ! there is no night Of uncompanioned want ; no hour above Hope's rapture, or unlit through lack of love. Life is no more forlorn of its delight, But with a love's repletion sweet despite Time's flight and Love's own end eventual Foreshadowed in our hopes and joys recall. Now Passion brims my life, sweet, care not what The future holds ; Today Love is our lot ! 94 POSSESSION Would I were yours — and the world might then end! Yours for Eternity's time and the grave, Yours in the bond of a love that could brave Doubtful to-morrow, uncertain to-day ; Love that could old-time regrets quite allay, Infinite love that no Time could expend ! Ceaseless desire and an unending need, — Heaven our own to ignore or to heed. Would I were yours — and the world might then end ! 95 FEB 5 1905 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 018 360 412