LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Chap, __. Copyright No. Shell____ L 5__7i5 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. IMPRESSIONS A BOOK OF VERSE LILLA CABOT PERRY BOSTON COPELAND AND DAY MDCCCXCVIII 1 ] 40904 TWDCOPfFS DECEIVED. COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY COPELAND AND DAY S-2>bSV C\axa W. OVE without hope cannot endure, you say ; Let mine eyes utter what you know too well, Thus shall their sad insistence ever tell A love you should not scorn or drive away, A love in sorrow growing day by day Like those pale blossoms in the shade that dwell But reach more strenuous toward the half guessed spell The sun faint flickering through thick leaves would lay. I ask not of you what you cannot give, I ask for this my love but leave to live, Since dying it must suffer keener pain Than living for your sake, though all in vain, Yet not in vain if you grant one last prayer : Let others share your joy ; with me your sorrow share ! ASK NO MORE ?OUR crowded life has then no place 'for me ? • Your busy day for me no little hour : I cannot tell my love with eloquence As others use — I can but feel love's power. The silence of the stars must speak for me ; The gray slow dawn when sleepless night has fled; The quiet marshes where the sea comes in A conqueror, though none have heard his tread. Give me the lonely hours, the silences, The quiet musings by the marshy shore, One moment's thought when all the world 's asleep, — Give me but these and I '11 not ask for more. A MISUNDERSTANDING ^HE flower of friendship has been jtouched by frost, I And think you it can ever bloom again, Waking from its cold sleep with struggling pain To raise its drooping head, all tempest-tost, And win back its rich hue faded and lost ? Alas, your tears and kisses all are vain ! The hapless flower that your neglect hath slain Shall wake no more to count life's bitter cost. No ! Let it fall upon earth's pitying breast, Dead leaves of hope heaped high above its head! So dear it was that I no tears can shed Nor dare to look upon its place of rest. You can shed tears, and I thus cruel seem, Since 't was my life and but your idle dream ! THE TRUTH ENTIRE >DO repudiate your unjust blame. f Ah, dear one, can those eyes I love >be blind And in my free avowal fail to find The truth entire ? — I should myself defame If, seeking pity, further fault I claim. Nay, more, 't was yours to loose my soul, not bind; Against self-doubt to be my champion kind And shape past weakness to a nobler aim. Swift as the lark that springs to meet the sun, The soul will spring to meet the higher thought ; Deeds must be dreamed before they can be done, And battles more by faith than steel are fought ; Believe me, dearest, what you M have me be ! Thus giving courage and humility ! A SHORT SEPARATION: HE >H summer, with this night you crown /the year ! *The golden moon her richest treasure flings O'er fragrant grassy slopes, — the cricket sings With cheery tinkle, yet my listening ear Finds tender sorrow in its cadence clear, — Past the warm meadows bathed in misty light, I seek the woodland path where yesternight We wandered arm in arm. — Now I am here Alone : — The whippoorwill sings from the bough Not, w Whippoorwill " he sings, but " Where art thou ? " My grieving heart but echoes back his strain, Throbbing this perfect night with new-born pain, For all this loveliness I fain would share, Whispers my dreaming heart " Where is she, where ? " A SHORT SEPARATION: SHE !0 you perchance in some dim forest '/nook »Like this, dream as Tm dreaming ? Does your gaze Pursue the intricate beauty of the haze Of tangled sweetness overhead, your book Forgotten where it fell while toward it strays Your inadvertent hand ? — Dear ! though the maze Of alien boughs you thread with dreaming eye 'T is but to reach beyond them the same sky ! 10 HE IS DEJECTED ] E know not if we had a life before, ) We know not if a future life we have, J And yet we know love lives beyond the grave; And glad I 'd die to live at your heart's core Wrapped in your love and grief for evermore. If from oblivion your love could save And I might rule where now I am love's slave I 'd welcome Death though stern the smile he wore. I'd welcome Death nor fear his mysteries Would you but seal my last breath with your kiss, I would relinquish life without one sigh. As others long to live I 'd long to die, If loving you could any virtue prove My heart were sure of Heaven — a Heaven of love ! n LOVE'S GIFT 1 H Love, true Love ! I pray thee to Ime give *That gift thou grant'st those eager hearts alone Who serve thee best, nor other master own, Since thus in thy sweet bondage do I live ! " — Comes sadly to my heart Love's low replying : " Pain is that gift vouchsafed to Love un- dying ! " 12 EXILE: HER SPOKEN THOUGHT )F I said "Hopeless love was never I found " »'T was that I vainly strove my heart to cheer And struggled to forget the trembling fear Which shook me, when my heart with sud- den bound Heard a new sweetness thrilling in the sound Of my friend's voice knelling our parting drear, — Since friendship turned to love would cost him dear. A woman and unloved, a queen discrowned, I '11 seek a joyless exile for his sake. Let me go forth from that fair province where So late I ruled serene, nor knew the ache Of love in banishment. Love fed on air Consumes in pain. His love I must not take, My joy too dearly bought by his despair ! i3 EXILE: HER THOUGHT UNSPOKEN 1 KNOW not if I love. When you are by I know not, see not, think not aught but you ! Despairing love my portion when you sue Despairingly, yet must I love deny Hoping thus to regain identity And find once more of my own heart the clue, Nor grieve that I escape when you pursue, Like fawn whose heart is with the hounds in cry ! Let me go far away, that thus alone When time and space us two shall separate, My heart may clearly speak and thus discover If you and I be really two or one ? For when Imagination masks as Fate, One might love Love and think she loved the lover. 14 SHE IS FRIGHTENED AT HIS AN- GER AT HER RESOLVING ON A LONG ABSENCE 'OUNDLESS as ocean is your love; /yet dark I With sudden storms erewhile it whelms my soul In waves of doubt and bitterness that roll, Like winter seas, on some poor helpless bark, Dashing it rudderless on cliffs that rise Sudden o'erhead, while moaning fog bells toll For those who die so near their wished-for goal, Which shrouded in white mist before them lies. Then at my grief you change and tender seem As that same ocean on a summer morn, Bringing sweet comfort to my heart forlorn Till sorrows past but turned to joy I deem, For all my grief that in your frown was born Dies in your smile as in a happy dream. i5 A LETTER SHE WROTE BUT DID NOT SEND AY not you 've " lost " me, the word I like a stone Falls on my heart. Though I 'm no longer near To clasp your friendly hand and call you dear And cheer the sadness that is only known To my divining love, you 're not alone ! My loving thoughts still bear you company, Drive them not from you, oh, forget not me ! Nor reap in tender leaf the love just sown. My written words must find their instant way Straight to your heart as spoken ones have done In those too happy days so lately gone When I was with you and you still were kind. Or have I lost you ? 'Tis for you to say — Me you can never lose but only find. 16 NO LETTER FROM HIM! )AST half forgot me? Once I was |thy mind. &Dost but half love me? Once I was thy heart. What once thou gav'st me left no more behind. I give all back nor care to keep a part, Where once I reigned I leave an empty throne, But fill it worthily, I ask alone. 17 SHE THINKS HE IS CHANGED J LONE to-night, the myriad stars above, >The ocean softly breaking at my feet, My heart is full of one I did not love, And yet whose memory is strangely sweet. Another holds his future in her hand E'en in his present is for me no place, Yet as the waves to-night break on the sand I hear his voice, I almost see his face. — Farewell to-night, beside the stars and sea Forget me, with the sorrows of thy past ; Alone am I, and yet thou art with me More truly now than when all mine thou wast. 18 SHE LOVES j^HERE is delight in loving, though no jmore You claim my love and oceans roll between, The waves that beat upon your distant shore They wait not for your bidding. You have been My friend for long ; but since I did depart You say you will not love, and for me sigh But rather tear me quickly from your heart. So be it, dear, God bless you and good-bye ! Yet there 's delight in sorrow of love born A fair sad moon from out a stormy sea Rising above the sobbing waves and torn By riband clouds across its face that flee — Such grief for me, for you forgetfulness — I ask no more, you cannot give me less ! 19 SHE HOPES ^HINK not you can forget me! I | have won • From your great love grief's immortality My shadow in your heart when I am gone And absence can but bind not set you free ! 20 SHE DESPAIRS THOUGH I may look upon thy face no Jmore, 2* Though love's own sweetness heightens love's regret My sorrowing heart would this one grace implore, That I may never and thou soon forget ! 21 HER LETTER ON HEARING HIM ILL SPOKEN OF J THOUGHT you of a grander make f Than Nature fashioned you ; >I built your image in my heart More large, more bold, more true. I held you to the higher aim And wearied thus your soul, Nor knew your timid heart preferred A lower, easier goal. The mountain-tops were not for you The valley small was best ; Who upwards struggle towards the heights Must ever know unrest. Now you are smiling, smooth, content And easily forget The mountain-tops your bleeding feet Trod long ago, — and yet ! Sometimes a long-forgotten thrill Wakes 'neath the solemn stars, Your valley small a prison is Though flowers conceal its bars. — The quiet midnight speaks to you, You draw a sobbing breath ! You '11 climb once more those star-crowned heights The other side of death ! 22 SELF-ENCOURAGEMENT 'EJOICE, O Soul, in the morning , Awaken at last to thine own, JThis life was not meant for thy scorning, Nor sighing, nor making of moan. This life was not meant for thy scorning But to teach thee thy weakness, thy might ! Rejoice, O Soul, in the morning And lift up thy face to the light ! 23 HIS ANSWER j)Y weary soul leaps to its feet, )My courage grown so small » Springs suddenly to larger life, Waked by your trumpet call. The chains of cowardice and sloth Your word has stript from me ; I go rejoicing to the fight, Your faith has set me free. Up, up above the battle smoke Your banner I will bear, Up to the heights you bid me seek, And you shall see it there. Shall see it waving in the sun And pain and wounds are naught Since I have conquered by your faith And reached your higher thought ! 24 HER ANSWER TO A SCEPTICAL LETTER JHE world so deafens you, you do not hear ?0A voice that calls and calls to you in vain ! &54SHThough you refuse His joy He holds you dear And gives to you his anguish and His pain. Do vou not feel that life can never die ? You love, you hate, you strive, do you not guess What power is vours through all eternitv To live, yourself, mighty to curse or bless ? 25 HIS ANSWER j^RUTH dwells upon the mountain- jtops alone. > Through various ways we all must seek it there. What though I climb o'er rough-hewn path of stone And thou o'er flowers, we breathe the self- same air. We breathe the selfsame air, the selfsame love Encompasses and leads us on our way, Our faces turned to the same skies above, By various ways to the same God we pray. Then let us feel the bond that makes us one, Though different be our mood, our thought, our speech, Let love unite us all beneath God's sun That shines for all, nor chooses each from each. Truth dwells upon the mountain-tops alone; Truth shines into our hearts from Heaven's star; Truth teaches us that multitudes are one, And hearts are one that seek it near or far ! 26 ON RECEIVING HIS LETTER *T night beneath the solemn stars I /stood &And watched the spacious loveliness, but yet Life's struggle and defeat could not forget, To-morrow's terrors trembled in my blood ! One came and said u Receive into thine heart Vast starry courage from the heavens above ; In this great universe whose law is love Whose end is victory, thou hast thy part." 27 MEETING AFTER LONG ABSENCE : AS SHE FEARED IT WOULD BE )ERE in this room, where first we met, I And where we said farewell with tears, >Here, where you swore "Though you forget My love shall deeper grow with years," Here, where the pictures on the wall, The very rugs upon the floor, The smallest objects you recall, — I am awaiting you once more. The books that we together read, From off their shelves they beckon me All here seems living ! What is dead ? What is the ghost I fear to see ? Unchanged am I. — Did you despise My love as " small " — it fills my heart ! You come — a stranger from your eyes Looks out — and meeting first we part. 28 AFTER LONG ABSENCE: AS IT WAS ^TOLD myself in singing words [That you were changed and I was true »I would not trust winds, waves and birds That change was not in you. I sang love's dirge before we met u As murdered corpse in river bed In eyes my heart cannot forget I see Love lying dead ! " You came — one look — no word was spoken Our hands, once clasped, forgot to part And though our silence is unbroken Heart has found rest on heart. 29 THE END QP^VpHE moon through trackless forests rinds a way, td&H&The ocean's pulses swell beneath its swav, Whom sacred love hath joined can never part, Heart of my heart. The waves that gently lap the sands at eve, The winds that sobbing through the forest grieve, Thev are thv messengers of peace or strife, Life of my life. All high endeavor draws me close to thee, Space cannot dominate the spirit free, Thv love, my part, makes me know God, the whole Soul of my soul. 30 LOVE AND DEATH 31 LOVE AND DEATH )OVE'S not Death's slave and .fears not his undoing; /Life is of all Love's foes most {pitiless, 'And custom tarnishes what in the wooing Seemed all the heart's desire of happiness. Death is Love's friend, and sets a holy seal On all the past that never can be broken. Its beautifying touch knows to reveal On lips long silent eloquence unspoken. 33 DEATH, THOU ART BEAUTIFUL 'EATH, thou art beautiful, and happy |art thou, Death ! *And thy strange calm and smile remote shall hold A peace unbroken by my sobbing breath, My living lips that tremble at thy cold. Yet thou art beautiful, and happy art thou, Death ! For in the grave love lays to rest all fear Change cannot come, and never perisheth The joy of memories daily grown more dear. Yes, thou art beautiful, and happy art thou, Death ! My trembling lips no more shall fear thy touch, My dear one is with Him who truly saith " Ye shall cast out all fear by loving much ! " 34 SORROW IHE youthful heart in its first sorrow Jcries '"None suffer as I suffer! None can know Such misery and live ! " And grief's surprise Enhances thus its woe. The heart grown old, whom Sorrow leads aside From paths of happiness, to know her face, Submissive sighs : " Yes, men have lived and died By myriads in this place ! " And feels with added pang that grief as keen Is, and has been. 35 AT SORROW'S WINDOW *T Sorrow's window many faces be, /But one so gently young, so pure and fair, ^That I must wonder in such place to see That face, yet love it more for being there. So might an angel look, who, earthward sent, Our world of sordid cares and hopes to know, Stands with an air of sad bewilderment Discerning what we cherish here below ! One day in passing I looked up in vain, From Sorrow's window looked that face no more, " Dear Girl ! " I cried, " you are gone home again, But ah, this world is poorer than before ! " 36 TOO LATE 2HE grief that wrings my heart to-night ]Is old as Love and stern as Fate, ^But yesterday I was unkind And now I grieve to-day too late. I stretch to you imploring hands And naught I grasp but empty air, The loving words that were your due I sob, too late, in futile prayer. The grief that wrings my heart to-night Is your love's message to my soul And life cannot contaminate What memories of you control. 37 NOT DEAD [ OU are not dead, your voice speaks to I me ever »And bids me know you living and still near Death is not death that has no power to sever One strand of the love that holds you ever dear. You are not dead, I joy in your freed spirit ! I fear no longer death or solitude ; The immortality you do inherit You share with me in all its plenitude. 38 IN DAYS GONE BY: RONDEAU REDOUBLE >N days gone by when you were here f I little heeded what you said ; »I watched the skies above me clear, I listened to the thrush instead. To this same spot my feet are led By thoughts of you another year The selfsame pine-trees rose o'erhead In days gone by, when you were here. Their slender forms to-day they rear Aloft in the same beauty spread But ah ! The thrush's song I fear ! — I little heeded what you said. And now, as starving man for bread, I'd spring to catch one word of cheer Yet when with love my heart you fed I watched the skies above me clear ! Once more on the same pine-leaves, sere And fragrant 'neath the summer's tread, I lie and think with many a tear " I listened to the thrush instead ! " I listened to the thrush instead, Yet could I now one accent hear Of that loved voice forever fled ! . . . I knew not that you were so dear In days gone by ! 39 REQUIESCAT IN PACE *RTIST and woman, daughter, mother, /wife, &In her white beauty smiling here she lies, Solemn yet joyful are the mysteries Her closed lips tell us of! — Eternal life Is hers. Eternal peace. — Hush ! weep not lest she hears And joy relinquishes to share your tears ! 40 THE SMILING DEAD 2HE smiling dead, for whom the sun jshall rise >No more, I pity not. Grief's for the living who with longing eyes Cry " Death hath us forgot ! " 41 SOME GRAVES THERE ARE! lOME graves there are where Death i)will not abide >Love makes of them the very homes of Faith | More life than lives in all the world beside Lies hid their turf beneath. 42 LIFE AND DEATH Phrixine. Tis V olbev, el £rjv tqv&, ot Ke/cX^rat Oavelv, To pjv $e 6vrj(TK€iv eori ; Euripides, frag. 1H ye who see with other eyes than ours, .And speak with tongues we are too 'deaf to hear, Whose touch we cannot feel yet know ye near When with a sense of yet undreamed-of powers We sudden pierce the cloud of sense that lowers Enwrapping us as 't were our spirit's tomb, And catch some sudden glory through the gloom As Arctic sufferers dream of sun and flowers ! Do ye not sometimes long for power to speak To our dull ears and pierce their shroud of clay With a loud-thought cry : " Why this grief at 1 Death ' ? We are the living you the dead to-day ! This truth you soon shall see, dear hearts, yet weak, In God's bright mirror cleared from mortal breath ! " 43 A WORD FROM A FREED SPIRIT *H, dear ones, dear ones, do not grieve. |)Think ! 't is my joy for which you 1 sorrow, Try but to feel what you believe ! — That you shall be with me to-morrow. 44 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 45 ART JOULDST know the artist? Then )go seek Him in his labors. — Though he strive HThat Nature's voice alone should speak IJFrom page or canvas to the heart, Yet is it passionately alive With his own soul ! Of him 't is part ! — This happy failure, this is Art. 47 ALLSTON'S PICTURE OF LOR- ENZO AND JESSICA 2WO silent lovers sitting side by side ]In the still twilight of a summer eve, ^They pensive seem, yet not as those who grieve, But on the waves of Fancy softly glide, Conscious of love and beauty, naught beside : Finding from life's hot struggle blest reprieve In this blest moment when the world they leave, Which stretches out behind them fair and wide 'Neath tender fading light, yet fairer far The world they see as hand-in-hand they dream. While on the breeze floats soft, melodious swell Of faint-heard music, that to them might seem As if it came from yon clear-shining star, And was at once Love's greeting and farewell ! 48 A RAINY DAY WITH THE AN- THOLOGY ^?HE skies frown on me through the j falling rain, >I smile on them for answer, and return To mv low chair beside the fire again And to my book upon whose pages burn Verses whose beauty makes all else seem vain. What though the rain pour down from dawn to night, What though my door turn on its hinge to none, I would not have these fancies put to flight, But dream these dreams unbroken and alone, Naught to disturb this delicate delight. 49 WITH A BOOK OF VERSE 2AKE once more what is yours : since Jit is mine ''T is surely yours ! If it have aught Of value, yours the praise. — Let not the wine Deny the grape ! Its lucent ruby bright Is but the lingering of the stored sunlight That dwelt in the grape's heart and ripened there Through the long summer days when cold and care And parting were unknown — and, O my friend ! In sending you my book, your own I send. 50 WITH A FLOWER FROM CARNAC ^PLUCKED this bit of yellow gorse [for thee s>By a huge menhir where on Carnac's shore The long waves murmur dirges evermore For men dead ere the birth of history. — Here once they lived whom Time's immensity Hath quite o'erwhelmed, and blotted out their page From the world's book ! On them may learned sage Descant, and poet dream, here by the sea ! But none may know what were their thoughts, their lives — None e'er may know ! none living or un- born ! — Were these their tombs built where the strong sea strives In vain to hold the warm elusive sands ? Were these hard by their altars, where forlorn They stretched to Heaven imploring empty hands ? 5i CHATEAU D'HAUTEFORT: NOW > SUNLIT castle on a solemn height ) Whence the broad distance rolling like a sea > Stretches below light-bathed immensity ! The glory of thy past has taken flight, But not thy beauty, Hautefort ! That shines bright, Though loyalty and truth and constancy In the last seignior's grave all buried be And he has joined his king, that last true knight ! Hautefort ! once strong to shelter, at thy feet The little feudal village lingers still, Like group of frightened children that have run To seek protection. While its slanting street The purple shades of falling twilight fill, Thy towers, still glorious, catch the vanished sun. This castle belonged to the late Comte de Damas, an intimate friend and devoted follower of the Comte de Chambord, Henri V. of France. The Comte de Chambord bequeathed to the Comte de Damas the white flag with the three lilies, this was placed to the 52 CHATEAU D'HAUTEFORT: THEN JNTHRONED upon thy hills in ^stately pride, aHautefort ! in thee the past doth live again Here with his thousand armed men in train Bertrand de Born brought his fair girlish bride. Here the Black Prince in vain for victory sighed, And stormed against thy mighty walls in vain As some o'ermastering flood sweeps bare the plain But breaks against the steadfast rock its tide. This was that France for which so many gave Their lives with joy, and watered with their blood The thirsty dust, from which her lilies sprung, And knight and clown served her in brother- hood ! For them a foreign prison or a grave, For her the glory which her poets sung. right of the altar in the castle chapel, and beneath it the Comte de Damas was buried, at his own request, the fringe of the banner just touching the tombstone. The castle is mentioned in Dante's DiAnd challenged thee as Love's re- lentless foe, Time! at thy feet I lay my humble verse, For thou hast ever helped true love to grow. Fancies, like butterflies, 'neath the first frost Fall lifeless at the fading flower's feet, But Love loves on unheeding pain and cost And clasps the thorns where roses once were sweet. Ah ! blest be pain and cost, since but the more Through them doth Love increase to meet Love's need Till thou, O Time ! throw wide that garden's door Wherein, Death-sown, blooms Love's un- dying seed. 57 REPENTANCE 5 HEN suddenly all self-condemned we [) stand JAnd see the chaff lie thick upon life's floor, — The besom, waved with over zealous hand, Sweeps grain with chaff its eager strokes before, And all our hopes of harvest seem undone. But, the long winter of repentance o'er, The gentle spring returns with shower and sun And where was erst gray dust beside the door One day is half imagined and half seen A sudden lightly scattered veil of green And faint hope trembles into life once more. 58 SYMPATHY *F all my heart cries out to you fMy lips could say, s>To your sad heart with comfort true 'T would find a way. But love's each heart-throb holds far more Than words can tell : Silent I stood before your door, Tears silent fell. 59 GRIEFS LONELINESS J LONE and uncompanioned must thou go /Through Sorrow's portals, for thee ^opened wide, While I, who 'Id follow thee to share thy woe In helpless sympathy am shut outside. I beat with clenched fist that iron door Within which thou alone confront'st thy fate y Dear Heart, whatever thy pain, I suffer more Who powerless to aid thee here must wait. 60 MEETING AFTER ABSENXE AND CHANGE ; AN I indeed be I, and vou be vou, i: stranger seems igs of dreams, And ve: vou: race thai once so well I knew Senile? through the whirling darkness — ves MHa??yve: parted ? Th "S^Tha: The cast Is cast — and memory without pain And pictures in mv mind our last adieu. With trembling voice, cold hand, and palinz cheek Y:u said g:cd-bve at sunset — and alone Went stumbling down the hill to meet the Ana I — I watched the ever-fading light Ana felt mv heart slow turning into stone And waved the last farewell I could not speak. 61 IN THE MORNING jr|HE first cold grayness through the Jpane is stealing, ^ And blinding terror with the rising sun Strikes on my shrinking heart and bids it shun The inexorable day, which in revealing My wakeful grief shows that which knows no healing, Since not for me, but for a dearer one, And not for innocent pain but sin that's done — Done, unforgettable and past repealing — All night I've looked into the eyes of sorrow, And still she gazes at me with your eyes, In whose loved depths such anguished question lies, As if from mine some piteous hope they 'd borrow. The day is come and soon you will be here, God give me strength ! I fear, I fear, I fear ! 62 TO A DESPAIRING LOVER fOUR love you cherish more than ilife, you say, »And with hot tears each night to Heaven you pray — Not for release, not that you may love less Or in some other heart find happiness, But that you may love more, with love more high Grown worthier, purer, each day till you die. — Ah, sweet young love, that to such prayers can move ! Ah sweet, mad folly, wisdom far above ! Your sorrows are another name for bliss, In days to come perchance you '11 think of this, With lips that smile and eyes that gaze through tears, Seeing the beauty of that youthful dream, Down the long leafy vista of the years, Where sunlit grief as fair as joy shall seem ! 63 ONCE MORE ?HE rustling pine-trees overhead. ] What do they say to me ? >Once more I part with one now dead, Beside the dashing sea. Once more we stand there, hand-in-hand, Upon that lonely shore ; Hopes break as waves upon the sand, And love must live no more. Once more I gaze in those dark eyes That seem the world to me ; Once more my heart awakes and sighs For what can never be. 64 WHAT THE BROOK SAID "SSOSf HY are you laughing:" said the )P brook to me, Why are you laughing r Blest are they that weep ! " And all my laughter trembled into tears. Past lips that smiled slow heavy tears ran down, As sudden raindrops fall when southward veers The wind, seeking; the leaves long falFn, the birds long flown. " Why are you weeping ? " said the brook to me, " Why are you weeping ? Blest are they that sleep!'" 65 ANSWER TO A QUESTION ?OU ask if I can love you as you are, I As I with all my faults am loved by you ? -Since you see Heaven shine in a drop of dew Could I then, Dearest, miss it in a star ? 66 SONG J HE song we never sung ]The pine-trees sigh in chorus, ^The eyes our eyes must shun Our hearts keep still before us. The rose we gathered not Blooms in the soul forever, And hands ne'er clasped in life Death hath no power to sever. 67 SONG LOVE than love more pure, Friendship than friendship dearer, This feeling shall endure Through life and draw us nearer. A day without day's heat, A night without night's terrors, A friendship yet more sweet Than love, without love's errors. Whene'er my soul is wrung With a delicious sorrow, By songs of heroes sung, From them new joy I borrow, Since thou my hero art, And thou canst me inspire With courage e'en to part From thee, if Fate require. Though cut by Duty's knife, Our love's chain joins unbroken : Though kept apart by life, We meet in prayers unspoken. A love than love more pure, Friendship than friendship dearer, This feeling shall endure, Till glad Death brings us nearer. 6S SONG }H, dark eyes, that but grow the more L tender >As you look through the mist of long years ! Ah, sad voice that cried : u Angels defend her ! " Then ceased, broken by swift-flowing tears. How could angels be deaf to such pleading, Whose echo rings through my heart yet ? While that last prayer to Heaven was speeding, My heart first forgot to forget. From what should His angels have kept me ? Love's agonies, doubts, and love's fears, All love's torrent of grief has o'erswept me, And no angel takes pity or cheers. I hear but his voice and its sorrow, I see but his eyes and their pain, And yet, if he came on the morrow, Perchance I should grieve him again. 69 CHERRY BLOSSOMS ^HE blossoms white have covered the tree, ]The blossoms that crowd when comes (the spring. These blossoms white are my songs to thee, All, all my songs, that to thee I sing From the deepest heart of me. They are many as many my songs to thee As the crowding blossoms that shield your head, From the sunlight now, — soon, soon to be A carpet white for your feet instead, When they fall and forgotten be. Though 'neath thy feet they die for thee On the cold black earth, with another spring More blossoms white shall cover the tree, And thine, all thine, are the songs I sing, As the singer must ever be. 70 DECEMBER JOhD winds have swept the frozen J furrows bare >The leaves, Spring's whilom mes- sengers and summer's pride Now brown, unsightly rustle through the air And soon in sodden heaps are pushed aside. All birds are silent save the sullen crow Who croaks exultant o'er the year's defeat. Why does this desolate season fairer show Than all the glory that made summer sweet? This miracle, dear Love, thy voice has wrought, For which in vain I listened, listened long; While waiting Summer's beauty went as nought : Now all seems loveliness and full of song ! 7i HERE I LIE DREAMING: RONDEAU )ERE I lie dreaming, and the breath |of spring &Fans my hot cheek, while softly whispering Sweet thoughts of my dear Love and of the day When at her feet upon the grass I lav And watched the budding boughs above us fling A rosy challenge of sweet blossoming To tempt the birds in the blue air that sing. — Once more, as then, 'neath blissful Fancy's sway Here I lie dreaming ! The selfsame songs above my head outring The selfsame joy wantons through everything The selfsame birds light on the blooming spray My heart, in vain, seeks thee the old sweet way, While to thy love as bird to spray I cling, Here I lie dreaming ! 72 TO HELEN *CCEPT the flowers along thy path- way, Sweet ! ^Incurious of the seed thou hast not sown, — Though poor the heart, 't was ever thine alone; Though small the cup, 't was emptied at thy feet ! 73 TO HELEN WITH A HAND GLASS SOULDST know the face that ever (comes between )The world and me, The face that from the hour when first 't was seen I ever see ? Look in this glass ! But ne'er for thee will shine The spirit's fire That lights up eyes and lips when thoughts divine That face inspire. If to all others it is beautiful I cannot tell ; That of my life it is not part but whole I know too well ! 74 LOVE, ART THOU GONE? ^UST once more in thine eyes' deep jheav'n I look >To read the tenderness I would not know Till love confessed itself and from us took A joy too great to live on earth below. Just once more, though the only word : Fare- well ! I hear thy love speak in each thrilling tone ; Though cold the word, the impassioned ac- cents tell That we are parting for love's sake alone. No more, no more ! This handclasp is our last, Alas, how hands will cling when hearts are one ! Thou sharedst my sorrows in the happy past, Love, let me bear thy grief ! Love, art thou gone ? 75 LADY OF THE MOONLIGHT «EAR Lady of the Moonlight, here we /walked, »Dim tree-tops arched mysterious over- head Wild shrubs, unseen, about us as we talked Warm fragrance shed. Great oaks their gnarled boughs triumphant tost In the strange beauty of that summer night The moon in darkest forest tangle lost Was hid from sight. But soon she netted in her silver snare The woods and pierced their thickets dark and sweet, My heart was taken captive unaware And trembled at thy feet. Dear Lady of the Moonlight, yet once more This summer night our forest path I seek^ Thy gentle presence near me as before^ Thou dost not speak. Yet all the beauty of the night finds voice To speak of thee! I know thee by my side And in thy love shall to all time rejoice Though thou hast died ! 76 MUST I THEN WOUND THEE? j)UST I then wound thee ? Firm I Jjhold the knife t Yet 'twixt it and thy heart I fling my life. Then strike, since strike I must, and gladly feel, As through my hot heart goes the chilling steel, That e'er it pierce thy heart, as pierce it must, My breast has caught the first force of the thrust, And thus shall rob the steel of its cold sting, Ere it reach thee, warmed by the streams that spring From my love's fount, so dear it shall have grown Fresh from my heart thou 'It welcome it to thine own. 77 LOVE AND ANGER 3 F Love from out the citadel thou'd thrust fThen drive out Anger too, Love's nimble 'page Dancing attendance for the promised wage, Forgetfulness — yet only paid on trust ! Love's cloak of pride were trailing in the dust But for his ready services, and yet, As ready payment he can never get, For Love and Anger both gnaw memory's crust. If thou canst not forgive her, thy heart's core Still holds an altar to her consecrate ! There burns the lamp, if lit by love or hate, Though thou fling stones where flowers were placed before. 'T is not for the forgetting, be it said, That savages heap stones above their dead ! 7* EL MIHRAB : THE HOLY OF HOLIES OF THE MOSQUE AT CORDOVA TERE have men prayed a thousand |years and more, ^Hastening from beggar's hut and kingly throne, Moslems and Christians kneeling on this stone Have furrowed it; as anguished tears that pour Down smooth fair cheeks slow hollow path- ways score, Here have they brought their grief, here made their moan And here each seeking heart has found its own If " Allah " or if « God " they did implore. Down the long pillared aisles the organ's chaunt Rolls soft and distant, as through forests vast The wind at night makes solemn melodies, Borne on its rhythmic waves what visions haunt The dreamer's fancy of the storied past, What pageants, pathos, anguish, victories ! 79 TO A BRIDE ^HY youthful roses all to lilies turned, )Thy head droops shyly like a lily fair : >Thy slender height new dignity doth wear : Sweet seriousness thy very smile hath learned And eyes now wistful sink, where late have burned Bright girlish flames. — And yet a charm more rare, A sweet pathetic grace, now lingers there And tells of joy that yet hath grief discerned, Since only those who know the high delight, The awful bliss of loving with the whole Informing force that lives in a pure soul, Can dimly guess at Sorrow's deadly might. — But far from thee may Sorrow ever dwell, Encompassed round by love — then — Fare thee well. 80 HORSEMAN SPRINGING FROM THE DARK: A DREAM NORSEMAN, springing from the dark, jftHorseman, flying wild and free, &Tell me what shall be thy road Whither speedest far from me ? " " From the dark into the light, From the small unto the great, From the valleys dark I ride O'er the hills to conquer fate ! " " Take me with thee, horseman mine ! Let me madly ride with thee ! " As he turned I met his eyes, My own soul looked back at me I 81 IMPRESSIONS THIS BOOK IS PRINTED DURING SEPTEMBER 1898 BY THE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAM- BRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS J|| L 171899