^66 S8 
 oy 2 
 
 ^ Summer 
 
 Love Story 
 
 y , Montgomery Wright 
 
19 14 
 
 JuDD & Detweiler, Inc. 
 
 Washington 
 
A Summer Love Story 
 Told in Verse 
 
 by 
 
 J. Montgomery Wright 
 1913 
 
 j4 scrivener, scratching with busy reed 
 IVas writing a song for a lover s 7zeed" 
 
 — Edwin Markham 
 
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 i9i'4 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 1. The Scene: 
 
 In the Mountains 8 
 
 2. A Surprise: 
 
 One Thing I Know 5 
 
 3. Her Disposition: 
 
 My Flower 6 
 
 4. Her Picture: 
 
 The Shadow of My Love .... 7 
 
 5. In the Tableaux: 
 
 A Foreword . ... , . 8 
 
 6. A Problem: 
 
 The Known Unknown .... 9 
 
 7. Flowers and Dreams: 
 
 Love's Messenger 10 
 
 8. In the Woods: 
 
 A Sylvan Kiss 12 
 
 9. The Season Fading: 
 
 Dear Summer Days . . . . .13 
 
 10. Gloomy Weather: 
 
 A Rainy Sunday . . . . . 14 
 
 11. Impatience: 
 
 Absent Days 15 
 
 12. A Retrospect: 
 
 In the South 17 
 
A Summer Love Story 
 
 if 
 
 "G^e Scene 
 
 In the Mountains ^ 
 
 The clouds, slow moving or in swifter flight, 
 The softened sunbeams or the sun's full might, 
 The varying shade on mountain and ravine 
 Make ever varying pictures of the scene. 
 
 Around and all about, the mountains high 
 Lift their proud heads and bathe them in the sky; 
 Or wrap themselves in clouds as day's begun. 
 Or catch the purple of the setting sun. 
 
 In mellowed distance lies the mirrored lake. 
 Oft smooth, oft ruffled when its ripples break: 
 Reflecting always from its glistening breast 
 Some top-turned mountain laid in ponderous rest. 
 
 Deep forests lie upon the mountain side; 
 While o'er the valley, scattered far and wide, 
 Are groups of lofty forest trees that stand 
 Relics of days that knew this wilder land. 
 
 Page Three 
 
And over all the sun's long lingering rays 
 Give warmth and color to the summer days; 
 Then autumn comes, and with its artist hand 
 Retouches all the beauty of the land. 
 
 The mystic frost its frozen mantle weaves 
 And turns to gold the harvest of the leaves; 
 The mountain tops aloft are all aglow 
 With shining fields of early fallen snow. 
 
 Within this circle of commanding heights 
 I stand 'mid beauty that the soul delights ; 
 Flooded with air cooled by the mountain dew, 
 I gaze, enraptured, on the mountain view. 
 
 Page Four 
 
^ Surprise 
 
 One Thing I Know 
 
 One morn, beneath the mountain height, 
 
 The grass still wet with early dew. 
 She walked across my wondering sight. 
 And then I knew. 
 
 If I know not where earth meets sky, 
 Nor mystery of the mountain glow, 
 Nor yet the depth of her dark eye, 
 One think I know. 
 
 And if these cherished hopes that teem 
 
 Within my heart should naught foreshow, 
 And prove at last a phantom dream, 
 I still shall know. 
 
 But who can shape the paths of fates, 
 
 Or trace the current of life's flow? 
 If at the end, perhaps she waits. 
 Then she may know. 
 
 Page Five 
 
Kir JDlsfosUlon 
 
 My Flower 
 
 My Loye is like the generous rose 
 
 That fragrance freely gives, 
 And never seeks return from those 
 
 For whose delight it lives. 
 
 Her kindly deeds and generous thought 
 
 To all are freely given : 
 No thought of self, no gain is sought. 
 
 Her deeds are gifts of Heaven. 
 
 Page Six 
 
3fer "picture 
 
 The Shadow of My Love 
 
 A DAEKENiNG cloud had floated past: 
 
 The sun's bright light shot from above, 
 And just across my breast it east 
 The shadow of my Love. 
 
 It lay, my arm and breast betwixt; 
 
 I sat spellbound and scarce dare move; 
 The camera closed, and fondly fixed 
 The shadow of my Love. 
 
 Page Se'ven 
 
Kn t^e tableaux 
 
 A Foreword 
 
 Most richly clad and heralded in light, 
 
 Now comes the lady of Rossetti ; 
 Unnamed she comes, entrancing to om* sight — 
 
 She may be Maud, or Marian, or sweet Betty. 
 
 We know her not, but all the world of art 
 To her surpassing loveliness pays duty: 
 
 Less lovely lady may have tenderer heart, 
 But art nor nature gives us more of beauty. 
 
 Page Eight 
 
^ "problem 
 
 The Known Unknown 
 
 What is this magnet, with mysterious force, 
 That draws together with resistless power 
 
 Two souls from out their widely variant course 
 That never met until the wond'rous hour? 
 
 Telepathy? Ah no; that cannot be, 
 For each to other is entire unknown : 
 
 Mind message needs the wire of sympathy 
 Already fixed before it can be flown. 
 
 Then shall we call it Fate ? And dream that each 
 Is guided by some unknown power above, 
 
 That drives to paths within or out our reach, 
 And all the gods take part in mortal love? 
 
 "In maiden meditation, fancy free," 
 
 The maiden heart oft loves a proud ideal; 
 
 But come the hour and unknown man, and she 
 Most often thinks, on instant, "This is real." 
 
 Between lines answer to bold Ingomar was brought 
 When asking: What is love, all said and done? 
 
 "Two unknown souls led by a common thought, 
 Two unknown hearts that beat apart as one." 
 
 Page Nine 
 
"3f^lower5 anb T)ream5 
 
 Love's Messenger 
 
 The rose you send me — that I sent to you — 
 Comes back with message of the love I sent. 
 
 No word went with them, but full well you knew 
 How much of love with all my roses went. 
 
 This rose has been with you and met your love ; 
 
 Your hand has touched it and your lips have pressed ; 
 You smiled beneath your eyes, down from above, 
 
 Into the blushing petals you caressed. 
 
 I take it back with all the love it brings ; 
 
 It spent the day with you: 'tis mine tonight; 
 Its fragrance wafted 'roimd me on love's wings 
 
 Shall lead me into dreamlands of delight. 
 
 O dear, sweet flower, that on my pillow lies, 
 Go find the place of my dear love's repose ; 
 
 Go carry to her heart my own love sighs, 
 
 And hers bring back to me — Go, sweetest rosel 
 
 Page Ten 
 
Ah ! with the morn you still are pillowed there, 
 My own sweet rose that passed with me the night; 
 
 But while I slept your fragrance filled the air 
 And led my soul in fancy's joyous flight. 
 
 Your eyes spake back to me as soft I dreamed, 
 Your petals closed upon my eager lips ; 
 
 With life and flesh and blood imbued you seemed: 
 I drank your love as bee the honey sips. 
 
 O rose! O love! — whichever one you were — 
 You came to warm me with your sweet embrace. 
 
 O rose I if only rose, you came from her 
 Laden with love time never can efface. 
 
 Page Ele'ven 
 
A Sylvan Kiss 
 
 The wind was sighing through the grove, 
 
 The birds were twittering from above, 
 And as we walked the path, I strove 
 To kiss my love. 
 
 "Ah no," she said; "the sim shines bright 
 
 Through branch and leaf, though closely wove, 
 His prying eyes shed too much light, 
 To kiss your love." 
 
 But soon we walked in deeper shade, 
 
 As through the tangled woods we roved ; 
 Beneath her eyes she smiled and said: 
 "Kiss your beloved." 
 
 The soft wind came from out the south 
 And whispered to the leaves above : 
 I felt its warmth from her sweet mouth. 
 And kissed my love. 
 
 Page Tiuel'ue 
 
^^e Season JFadiitg 
 
 ***** 
 
 Deae Summee Days 
 
 Deae summee day, dear summer day, 
 Your charms are swiftly fading: 
 
 The autumn day in bright array 
 Comes brilliantly parading. 
 
 But summer day, dear summer day, 
 
 I watch you slowly dying. 
 And as you slowly fade away 
 
 My heart with you is sighing. 
 
 The summer days bring near my love, 
 And autumn days are parting: 
 
 I wish, I wish all things above. 
 The summer days were starting. 
 
 But summer gone, or autumn's start, 
 
 Or winter's chilly blasting. 
 Can make no difference in my heart : 
 
 My love, with life, is lasting. 
 
 Page Thirteen 
 
(Bloom? X^eat^er 
 
 A Rainy Sunday 
 
 The sunlight that I love so much 
 
 Today cheers not my sight : 
 Dull clouds the lowest edges touch 
 
 Of all the realm of light. 
 
 I gaze upon the outer world 
 And watch the clouds drift by, 
 
 While by the wind the leaves are hurled 
 And rudely tossed on high. 
 
 With driving force comes down the rain 
 In waves that sweep the ground, 
 
 Stirring to life dead dust again 
 When pattering drops rebound. 
 
 But though the daylight dark has grown 
 
 And earth and sky are sad, 
 And Nature seems to weep and moan. 
 
 And wind and rain gone mad. 
 
 Within my heart there is a light 
 
 No darkness can obscure: 
 Dear memories keep it burning bright, 
 
 Hope all its rays keeps pure. 
 
 Page Fourteen 
 
impatience 
 
 Absent Days 
 
 Oh I THE DAYS they come and the days they go, 
 
 And each is a little longer ; 
 For each day as it comes and goes so slow 
 
 My love for my love grows stronger. 
 
 Oh I when will the summer days come again, 
 With their warmth and time for loving, 
 
 With the woods all flickering sunlight when 
 I with my love go roving? 
 
 The autumn must fade and the winter pass, 
 And the spring burst into blooming, 
 
 Before the summer days come, alas ! — 
 But the days of love are coming. 
 
 Fage Fifteen 
 
^ Retrospect 
 
 In the South 
 
 The trees are green, the grass is new, 
 
 The flowers are all in bloom ; 
 The days are bright, the sky is blue, 
 
 But I walk like one in gloom. 
 
 For my heart's in the mountains far away, 
 My thought on the paths in the wood. 
 
 Where I walked alone with her each day, 
 With my love in her sweetest mood. 
 
 Finis 
 
 Page Sixteen 
 
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