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 LOVE IpNNETS 
 
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 FLORENCE BROOKES 
 
Book ' (^ 7^TS 
 
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 COPYRIGHT DEPOSnV 
 
RXXIII LOVE SONNETS 
 
 FLORENCE BROOKS 
 
 JOHN MARONE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 1908 
 
Two C ■ les Received | 
 
 APH 2 1908 
 
 '9d 3 ^^^ 
 
 ^s 
 
 •r^ 
 
 Copyright J908 by John Maronc 
 
The author desires to thank the Editors of The Century and 
 Scribner's Magazines, the Bookman and the Smart Set for theii 
 courtesy in granting permission to reprint in this little volume 
 many of the following sonnets. 
 
DEDICATION 
 
^ - HY love shall plant the laurel on thy tomb, 
 §~^^ ^ ^06*5 dead and young 
 
 m,^^ Whom men have never sung 
 
 Asleep beneath the green and glossy gloom 
 Where in the Maytime lovely blooms are hung 
 Above to tell thy doom. 
 
 Those who have scoffed shall see thy symbols there 
 
 Pale images of thee 
 
 Too soon set free, 
 Too soon to wither, boy that wert so fair, 
 Rise now filled with life's pulse of harmony 
 
 Earth-rooted, heaven-rare. 
 
 Even those whom thou hast hurt shall make a vow 
 
 Ah, long, long after this, 
 
 And hunger for thy kiss 
 All those who would not praise, and praise thee now 
 Sighing for still lips shut away from bliss 
 
 And bless thy dead young brow. 
 
 Thy tenderness the world hath dared destroy 
 
 Who wert to gods akin. 
 
 Too wise to call life sin 
 Before thy soul grew fixed, fated boy, 
 By mingling poisoned fires to drop within 
 
 Thy soul's pure cup of joy. 
 
 Thou knowest a home on some eternal star 
 
 Afar at thy still goal 
 
 Where thy free soul 
 That cruel life made sick and sought to mar, 
 Dost see men's agony in vain from far 
 
 Where great suns roll. 
 
XXXIII LOVE SONNETS 
 
XXXIII LOVE SONNETS 
 
 I SOUGHT the symlsol in the unsounded s'dcs 
 Where purple drowses in the sunnier hour, 
 Or the dark Etcrrn impen.trable doth lower 
 With silent intent and unult'red si^'hs. 
 I<l|^08 I soujht alone to ilnd ths vase 
 Soul of the universe in star and -lower 
 Over far wastes or in the brooding bower, 
 And I was weary till I saw your eyes. 
 
 0, I behold the calm of ancient dawn 
 Patient and pale, I tremble at the storm 
 Of latent fear and love, feverish and wan ! 
 life and the soul of life in recreate form . 
 I feel, and know the axis of the spheres 
 Is love, more wondrous than the solemn years. 
 
 11 
 
11 
 
 I DREAMED, Beloved, thou wert come too late 
 To some rare garden Ijing in the sun 
 Autumnal and aloof. Thou wert alone 
 Musing, and when thou sawest the purple state 
 In paling golden mist beyond the gate, 
 There wouldst thou enter, for the airs were grown 
 Bitter and grey save where the lone sun shone 
 And wanton glory v/ould delude its fate. 
 
 Therein were yearning tears fallen on the mire 
 Of spring ; in June the opening of love's rose ; 
 Therein the wine of summer stored; the fire 
 Of great wise season's passion and repose; 
 And, Love, I dreamed within the garden close 
 In autumn, tl:Du didst find thy dear desire, 
 
 12 
 
in 
 
 ^^1 ^ GUU) that my words were an idyllic rune 
 ^lyf f Whicpering cf the '^^hinis of wind and sea 
 ^^V^ To follow on our days bright pageantry 
 
 And fuse mysterious ni^ht wilh noon and noon, 
 'Where our bare souls might float as in a sv/oon 
 Through f uctuant waters' murmurous ecstasy, 
 Singing in tremulous atmosphere to me 
 Cur moods as changeful as the v/ave and moon. 
 
 My words shall be the grasses where you tread 
 A tender shepherd sighing, and my breath 
 As reverent as the darkcome laurel wreath 
 Ily hand would bind about your sacred head. 
 
 some rare symbol from a subtle tongue 
 Must linger in the beauty I have sung ! 
 
 13 
 
IV 
 
 I SAID to Duty: ^'Thou shalt never feed 
 Upon the delicate fabric of my soul. 
 Gracious the tender blossom shall unroll, 
 Thou shalt not vex the sweet flower and its seed!" 
 I said to Passion: "Never for thy need 
 Shall my strong spirit weaken, neither dole 
 Nor all the fires of Hell shall hurt my soul. 
 Thine ardor shall consume nor thought, nor deed !" 
 
 I walked apart in pastures soft and pure 
 
 For Duty whispered: 'Tassion is a Sin!" 
 
 The path was narrow, all the woods a lure. 
 
 And Passion answered: "Where I strive I win!" 
 
 I said "Farewell" and where the summits shone 
 I wandered free, and stood, Love, alone! 
 
 14 
 
I AM a pilgrim of the withered staff 
 Wandering the world, and thou my godlike love; 
 Thou art the dizzy universe above 
 Lly gaze illuminate; and fruit or chaff 
 Are nau^-ht, but pour me tears of rain to quaff, 
 Send sunny winds to please, make oceans move 
 For my great wonder, my poet love, 
 ' And I will care not if I weep or laugh. 
 
 ||| To thy sweet moods I would be like a flower 
 I Soft in the flowing wind, or like a pool 
 I Beneath the purple rain; from hour to hour 
 Thou swayest, I am thine, priestsss or fool. 
 
 I care not if my life be song* or sob 
 1|'Sp in the night I hear thy strong heart throb, 
 
 15 
 
VI 
 
 OLST some exquisite vintage have a place 
 In the rich-fashioned vessel of thy heart 
 Golden and wondrous in its outward part. 
 Invaluable art thou; let no base 
 Nor bitter drink, dear One, corrode the vase, 
 Nor poison mark by its devouring smart 
 The beauty wrought with all a lover's art 
 To correspond to thy rare spirit's grace. 
 
 Dost thou deem me a flower when thou foldest 
 Me, droopin'^, as it were, on the cup's brim 
 Drinking thy tears ? Am I the wine thou holdest 
 For thy sweet drunkenness within the rim? 
 
 Let fall the feeble flower, pour out the wine, 
 Thou art a chalice for the most divine ! 
 
 16 
 
vn 
 
 OLET us wander, lover, in the dark 
 Under the uncomprehending bough. 
 Thine eyes I know not, strange to me thy brow, 
 But through us flashes the incarnate spark 
 Thrilling the night whose silence bids us hark 
 In the thick gloom, and time is nothing now, 
 I am not I, thou art no longer thou, 
 Life on our wayward souls has set no mark. 
 
 I know not if we loved for joy or pain 
 In pale old ages when the yellow flowers 
 Flaunted in tardy sunshine, or the rain 
 Flowing and pallid, wept through purple hours. 
 
 But I know I am all in all to thee, 
 Thou that I love, Thou that lovest me ! 
 
 \7 
 
vm 
 
 ^ ■1 ^ ET not the storms of living shrivel thee 
 ■ / Like a bent bush that stubbornly doth stand 
 _ff ^^ With naked roots, determined in the sand, 
 
 Subject to the great lawless, furious sea. 
 rather shalt thou grow like a strong tree 
 Sweet-scented at the heart! Thou shalt expand 
 V/hen summer comes to bless thy fruitful land 
 Whose life in thy strong fibres may flow free. 
 
 Let me grow near thee like the meadow grass 
 About the tree "where the blue shadows creep 
 In windy moods that wave and kiss and pass 
 During fresh dawns or when the twilights sleep. 
 
 Thy sap doth thrill the substance of the soil, 
 Thy roots and mine unite coil upon coil 
 
 18 
 
IX 
 
 EAST thou not felt the tremblings air that clung^ 
 About thy throat when kisses were too faint 
 To hold thy volatile soul by touch or taint 
 Of earth ? With thine my pulsings soul hath swung 
 V/here lovely thin inviolate spaces flung 
 Fine essences intangible, acquaint 
 With rhythmic dreams of lover or of saint 
 In vast blue visions from our rapture sprung. 
 
 From me to thee the spirit thou shalt mould, 
 From thee to me the life that I may round, 
 Thy seed hath been mine heritage from of old. 
 And of thy dream I am the scent and sound. 
 
 Out of the death of ages art thou mine, 
 Behold, the unbudded seasons make me thine! 
 
 19 
 
O NIGHT hath never tired of thee and me, 
 Dear fiower that dieth wanly in the dawn, 
 E-enewed within thy look the moon were drawn 
 And pals, and even the twilight rose, like thee 
 Hath known the fiush and fear and ecstasy 
 Of passing life and death and groweth wan — 
 Dear rose new sunrises shall breathe upon — 
 For death and love embrace eternally. 
 
 The grave av/aiteth all thy lavishment 
 Thou vestured bridegroom of the naked flower 
 Glowing and paling in the ravishment 
 Of the dim night at the mysterious hour. 
 
 But, though the soul shall fade from mortal birth 
 let us love forgetful of this earth ! 
 
XI 
 
 ELOVED, if thou vowest thou wilt pine 
 For menioiy of me who have long been thine, 
 I answer thou wiit gTieve but for a year 
 Bereft of our communion bread and wine. 
 
 For even deccth hath nothing that I fear 
 
 Like this forecart of thy forgetting, dear, 
 
 The tenant soul shut in me as a shrine 
 
 Adores the sweet place of our sacred cheer. 
 
 0, beauty thou deservest like the pearl 
 
 To purify thy heart of such as nie, 
 
 Thou shalt love all the lovely flowers that be 
 
 Abloom again, incarnate in some girl. 
 
 And she shall teach thee slowly, kiss by kiss, 
 The wondrous sorrow of our buried bliss. 
 
 21 
 
xn 
 
 IN the dear waning night I was impelled 
 To bid my lover look upon my face 
 That the uncaring dawn of absolute space, 
 Uncovering the mask of love we held 
 Moulded from dreams that love and midnight weld 
 Of soul and shadow over every place 
 Where lovers love and shadow grants a grace, 
 Should blot out all the beauty he beheld. 
 
 Her veils of her hair like to a twilight cloud, 
 Her Indian summer eyes, heart of a dove 
 Thrilling her voice I praised before my love, 
 And many jealous fears I breathed aloud. 
 
 But let the bare cold light of day unroll 
 Love, for my heart sees all thy steadfast soul. 
 
 22 
 
xm 
 
 ^ " I L ' -^ ^^'^ *^°^ forgot the ecstasies that seem 
 
 W ^ To flow about us when our souls suspire 
 J^ W In melting grief and delicate desire? — 
 
 The sweet souls in us, born to the extreme 
 Of pain and love ? when last ardors stream 
 Pearly and gold, united wave and fire 
 Forever mingle, as if child and sire, 
 Maker and made, were blent in one blest dream ! 
 
 Forgive me, Love, for thou art like an isle 
 Perfect and adequate, embraced in foam 
 Of an inconstant tide returning home 
 Where thy dear subtle harbors yearn and smile. 
 
 Those passive inlets shaped through moody years 
 By an unresting sea, drink barren tears. 
 
 23 
 
XIV 
 
 ^ ^ ^ HE moon hath made me cruel, dearest One ! 
 ^ ^^ Like a small earth it v/ere my sole delight 
 ^^i^ To follow thee whether my moon be bright 
 Or dark, for thou art like a strange wise sun 
 
 And I would drift where frozen orbits run 
 
 Timed by tne morning thou dost make and night, 
 
 Far, far, Alas ! and farther to the height. 
 
 Or fall to tropic depths in unison. 
 
 Is the rhythm lost? Ah, let the image perish! 
 For in the dark of the moon I am grown blind, 
 I am no more the sphere thy raptures cherish. 
 Thou not the heat and cold that were unkind. 
 Regret fears nothing for my passive part 
 Save to forget the fire of thy great heart. 
 
 24 
 
XV 
 
 ^ ^ "^ HOU who hast bought me dearer than all dues 
 M ^^ I could exact, the slave hath thee besought, 
 ^^^ Placing' for thee the viand: "Sell me not! 
 
 For thy sweet thirst my forethought shall infuse 
 
 Crimson in a stone cup. I am thy muse, 
 
 Thy servant. Thou shouldst value what thou hast bought 
 
 At dear expense!" Thus have I thought and thought. 
 
 0, what am I but for thy love to use ! 
 
 Yet matters not my silence nor my sigh. 
 The wide waste lies before thee who art bound 
 Afar. 0, let me live, leave me to die, 
 I am the one thine opulence hath found. 
 
 Thou paidst, and what thou takest that was mine 
 Is for thy service since the whole is thine, 
 
 25 
 
XVI 
 
 OLOVE, it seemed last night as if the rain 
 Wept for us mourning, mingled with the surge 
 In great grey harmonies, and grief did merge 
 Into our joy and pleasure swooned in pain. 
 The voice of our lost longing was a strain 
 Whose utterances blended in a dirge 
 Where the dumb heavens bade the thunders urge 
 The sea and earth to wail our passion's wane. 
 
 cold and tender eyes, cruel lips ! 
 Thou givest to drink in kisses' mocking thirst, 
 Whether it be a philter's maddening sips, 
 Or sacrificial wine, or sweet or curst ! 
 
 Once more thy bitter ardors seem to burn — 
 Once more, once more, pour for me from thine urn! 
 
 26 
 
xvn 
 
 HINE ardor flows around me as a wood 
 • ^^ Fills with the gentle wind at dusk, that growing, 
 ^^^ Throug-h each green crevice and interstice blowing, 
 
 Allures and soothes a sweeter, wilder mood, 
 d thy caresses lave, as a shore, wooed 
 jmder the starlight with pale roses glowing 
 ')n creeping waters, tempting, reaching, flowing, 
 5 wreathed over dark depths where night doth brood. 
 
 I Tet every kiss hath fallen on my soul 
 
 IlS the dear blossoms fall in ripening May. 
 
 Jehold, I mourn them, though the leaves unroll, 
 ' tehold, love grows more pale, more pale than they. 
 
 leloved, how sad the springtime seems ! 
 inr souls have seen the passing of our dreams. 
 
 27 
 
xvm 
 
 OI WOULD sin^^ of love in every tcne ! 
 The chant of trees, the iranmur of a ficwer, 
 The si;^'h of winds in some deserted bower 
 Where solitude replaces lapture Hown 
 Prom summer midnights, the tempestuous gToan 
 Of torrents, or the scn^; of the new hour, 
 The monotone of a nocturnal i-how-er 
 Tell me of love in laughter. :■■■ ' ■■ oan. 
 
 Dearest, I heard strange muvjL: in the nigh' 
 
 When the great stoiri:-v,inu • ■ " ', 
 
 Sobbing to stupor at the i-i. 
 
 then, to thee, my exiled lon^^ings prayed; 
 
 "Where is that banished love, where the delight 
 
 Thou knowest, where the joy thou hast betrayed?" 
 
 28 
 
XIX 
 
 "^]AY.r. me in pciiiiry a-vvhile to Ws^ep 
 II 1 have overdrav;n from oiir sv^eet hoard. 
 Let rA2 net squander trsasnros :Tathcrcd toward 
 A vintiy lutirre's want, nor s:rasp too deep 
 
 To reach tli!: wealth a wiser gov! would keep, 
 
 '^"or, to my iavirh ecstar:;y afford 
 
 Our consecrated opulaxCes stored 
 
 Where (he locked, laden, silent shadows sleep, 
 
 ghastly creditors arc in the c:locin 
 
 lint dusk dolh Etrang'cly rob them from my si^ht 
 
 And silence in the brooding^ heaven hears 
 
 Within tlie voiceless r;paccs of the room 
 
 Ail the dark day the drip of counted tears 
 
 For every kiss thou gavest in the ni^^ht. 
 
 ?9 
 
XX 
 
 I GAVE my hand to thee across the horde 
 Of creatures clashing on the restless sand; 
 To thcC, unknov/n, unsought, I gave my hand 
 And ail the chanting ocean voiced one word 
 Until my soul, dear Lover, yearning toward 
 Thy rare soul, like a wraith above the strand 
 Beheld thee fade along the stormy land, 
 When the blast sundered us with its stern sword. 
 
 Look! The frail shadows of our souls alone 
 Wander through gloomy woods in chilly spring, 
 Flit through the summer night when storms are done, 
 Listen apart when the weak waters sing. 
 
 And when some cloven cloud pours all its rain, 
 Lost Love, those tears flow from our spirit's pain. 
 
 30 
 
XXI 
 
 OIOVE, I cannot touch thee with my yearning 
 To lilt thy shadowy hair; my veiled sight 
 As if at the last longing for the lig'ht 
 Of fadin;^ arctic summer, faint discerning, 
 Sees but a dim sad ghost; my mouth, unlearning 
 The live deep fiower of thine in the thick ni^ht 
 Seeks where is nothing that lost soft delight. 
 That flame remembered yet, on mine yet burning. 
 
 Wilt thou deny us memory? Wilt thou thrust 
 Our souls that loved, mourning into the shade 
 To wander unreclaimed? Wilt thou not trust 
 Our tragic, powerless passion though it fade? 
 
 Ah, though it fade into the midnight sky 
 The soul we wrought. Beloved, shall not die! 
 
 31 
 
xxn 
 
 l\E niglit I wept as if a child were dead. 
 The wliclo earth's frantic murmur reached mine ear 
 in empty whispsis neither far nor near. 
 But one dark onien throii;:h 3ny sorrow sped 
 
 And all I heard of what the whispers said 
 
 Was this: ''The one thoii loves-t is not here 
 
 And thou shalt weep, shalt weep until no tear 
 
 Is left thee where thou liest on thy bed." 
 
 Such tears are little seeds and souls of things 
 That in tJie darkness fall into the ground. 
 Ah, if I cherish them, life shall abound 
 In tentant buds and glorious flowerings. 
 
 Would some wise gardener catch my tears and tend, 
 The tree of love should blossom without end. 
 
 32 
 
xxm 
 
 "^" jf W^ "^-^ ^^^^^ alone in the lost world of night, 
 
 ^>iaJ| Sweet youth whose breast my head hath lain upon 
 
 J^^JRi^ ill some primeval V;Ood of aeons lone 
 
 Eef ore the years withdrew thee from my sight? 
 
 ifow the dim zt:m^ seem leaning for thy light, 
 
 And ail the land confased and heaven wan — 
 
 Art thoTi alone, cv/eet one, ait thou alone, 
 
 Whose life was oiice my bloom v^hose loss my blight? 
 
 I call thee with the voice of many woods. 
 The waters thou dost love are my deep tears 
 Sprung from the old farewell of unknown years. 
 And winds of all the seasons are my moods. 
 
 -woe, the throbbing" earth where thou shalt sleep 
 Is the same bed where thy lost bride doth weep! 
 
 33 
 
XXIV 
 
 ONCE thou and I, Love, found a secret sea 
 Spreading upon the surface of the star 
 Whereto we Hed together, white and far, 
 Cur souls embracing, dreaming we were free 
 From this coarse earth. Love, mjrsteriously 
 Those wise lone watsrs held by hill and scar 
 Slept in an ancient peace that no men mar, 
 Unsolved, unsounded even by thee and me. 
 
 Love, I dream of wonders no man knoweth 
 In that lost sphere of love where sleepeth shaded, 
 The stern indifferent sea; where no tide showeth 
 In fluctuant shape our love that flooded, faded. 
 
 p- 
 
 Hast thou the dream, the same ? And dost thou know 
 Where our lost star through silver space doth go ? 
 
 34 
 
XXV 
 
 ^ Wr "^ ^^^' ^° ^^* blame me if I took away 
 H f From thine abundance more than I bestowed, 
 Jl dl My love was like a river and it flowed 
 
 Through thy rich country gathering day by day 
 From thy far hillside, from the mountain way 
 Sweet waters where thine image once abode 
 Changeful, and Love, I triumph, having owed 
 The joy of my fair current to thy sway. 
 
 all the joy of leaning bush and bough 
 Reflected once, — the violet sky, the tree 
 Mirrored in double calm — are scattered now 
 In glints of beauty through the eternal sea 
 Billowing beyond the ages hint and hush, 
 Where my flood hastes to meet the tidal flush. 
 
 35 
 
XXVI 
 
 IF tlicu cli:)iilcl^t kibs ]^? hotj iny heart wcnld flame 
 Into a Rcarl^jt fc-7:or thst dTv.?r*^.s ci Ih^^e 
 Un"blo£iiC2iicd; or if my cla:cd c^ cs should see 
 A vvondrciis face in \isioii. I v; c ild name 
 That beauty with Ih-/- n^nie, love, ^'ho tli-^ '"''^ ? 
 With all wild spirits ait, no far Bzi fr: :. 
 Thou ethereal one, aloof from me, 
 Clear of earth's ^:i'.-j ■w^^'^-^^^ ^^^-^ ">■ ^-■•^ o^.7.-,.ot 
 
 For I have nothinr-r of thse. Taj ^an iire 
 Treriibles elusive an 'twere in a cloud 
 On a horizon vanishing' in gloom.. 
 In our bereft abode the raviihcd shroud 
 Lies vacant in the diis;?.; the empt'-' room 
 Chills in the silence of a dead desire. 
 
 36 
 
XXVII 
 
 i^^l'^^K" - ' - "d ihe heart 
 
 ^'liat ccnld I eij. tij fi.^li? 'Iwtie cold as stone. 
 
 Ill, tlie v.orId niccks thae? It is net too late 
 i'or thee to join it. Hush ! I stare alone-— 
 .. Of C. 
 
 37 
 
xxvm 
 
 STRANGfER, from the cup my spirit brewed 
 I gave tiiee drink; and tlie blue joyous fume 
 From my red fire I let thy sense consume; 
 Throu2"h my soul's living ether thou hast viewed 
 
 Across the vital earth, the real, the crude 
 
 Drifting" to images; thou didst assume 
 
 Royal delight of color and perfume 
 
 And hold as thine the beauty thus renewed. . . 
 
 Stranger, by thy hands, thine ears, thine eyes 
 
 1 was thy love ; I, whom thou dreamed and felt 
 In sovereignty beneath thy vision melt, 
 One with the tangible in fervid guise. 
 
 Behold, m-y soul, unbounden from thy thrall 
 Hears now the world's farewell, the heaven's call. 
 
 38 
 
XXIX 
 
 OTHOU wert once my Answerer, thou wise, 
 Thou wondrous prophet of my soul's estate, 
 Fusing the elements of love and hate, 
 Of life, of wisdom. Thine is the demise 
 Of weak sad saints ; thy pang the death man dies ; 
 Thine, itill born monsters, sweet-bitter mate 
 To poets! Man and woman, narrow, great 
 In thy chaotic songs, thy perfect sighs! 
 
 Now thy voice vanishes caught in the gloom 
 Of vacancy; no echo rises; God! 
 Doth a strange shadow lead me to a tomb? 
 Doth thy soul wander where no soul hath trod? 
 
 No ansv/er issues from thy empty bed. 
 
 The question wails among the shrouded dead. 
 
 39 
 
n 
 
 XXX 
 
 OVv" in the silence is thy spirit lost 
 thou v/ho liest cold and stian^^e and pale, 
 
 On that dim day our wavering spirits crossed, 
 Thine cold and questioning, and mine storm-tossed, 
 Among" old willows bent to the western gale 
 On the vague shore of thine own sea-washed vale, 
 When what thou least had known thou knev/est most. 
 
 xTow by that <:^rey and solitary shore 
 The rising storm-winds chant thine aftermath 
 On billowin?; sands amon^ the pale sea-grass, 
 Sobbin.^' that here thy step shall turn no more, 
 Mourning that never here thy foot shall pass 
 Where dark-spired cedars hide the narrow path. 
 
 40 
 
XXXI 
 
 NCE out aboYe the swin^'ing inert sea, 
 Tliy soul adrift upon t'.h.e surg'c of air, 
 Alone tlioii dreaiacd a drc-2i;i so fierce and rare 
 Tl'iOd must li/ive kr_cv7ii a giiint's fo/ce to be 
 
 Enibodi'^d tlius in heroes ^vezd and free; 
 
 But thv pr/Ic cheek, thy hero-seeing* stare 
 
 Tuniod back irom vacancy at last aware 
 
 Of solitude and helplessness, to me. 
 
 Thou who hast oft sat hj rou^^h boards in talk 
 V/ith common men, thou whose feverish feet 
 Brsiwn outward, made the j:.GL:;nin shore thy walk, 
 Or hirrd by wantons, recjdess smote the street, 
 Bid-t ?tore those inner ^.'isions mood by mood, 
 Bidst v/aken pale at chilly dawn to brood. 
 
 41 
 
XXXII 
 
 ^-^^^ IIY soul shall be lamented though thy flesh 
 d ^^ Were all too youngs to perish, all too fair 
 ^^*^ Thy frame, too wild thine eyes, too soft thine hair, 
 So soon to le thus caught within the mesh 
 
 Of earthy filaments ; thy rapt song too fresh 
 
 To be imprisoned in the speechless snare 
 
 Set by a sharp death for the unaware, 
 
 Unfulfilled soul too soon loosed from the flesh. 
 
 How thou once sailed the seas for dear life's sake, 
 How strange and mad and riotous thou wert grown, 
 How thou hast drunken in deep cups to slake 
 Thy longing", were this writ on thy cold stone 
 
 An epic wild thy wandering would tell 
 To the sad music of a burial knell. 
 
 42 
 
xxxin 
 
 " '(^%.1J ^ ^^"^ ^^'® *^s living now that thou art dsad 
 
 I Im ^f f Though every sun make warm the chilly earth, 
 
 ^^^^ Thoug-h seasons perish having given thee birth, 
 Now that thou liest in thy new dark bed? 
 
 Ah, over slopes that once knev/ thy young" head 
 I In other spring-times, mocks the strong wind's mirth 
 
 Playing across the paths that know thy dearth, 
 
 And by full tides thy shores are comforted. 
 
 What though the crimson cups allured thy mouth 
 
 Ever too wan? What though thine eyes grew dark 
 
 That mirrored once the blur of pallid wave ? 
 
 What though thy slim feet ran toward north, toward south 
 
 Burning in thy young haste to make thy mark. 
 
 What matter these things, now thou art in thy grave ? 
 
 43 
 
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