^- 
 
 
 
 **4C^c>. 
 
 > 
 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 
 A 
 
 ^ 
 
 .V-^ 
 
 ^■^ ^.^ 
 
 o 
 
 o^ ,"^ 
 
 
 -n-o^ 
 
 .0 
 
 ^oV 
 
 ^, 
 
 -'VW 
 
 .^' 
 
 ^ 
 % 
 
 
 ^^.. '^^-yn.; .^q. 
 
 0^- 
 

 .0 
 
 ,^^ 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 i-^p*: 
 
 v^ 
 
 '5.'^ '^ 
 
 ^e 
 
 
 ^ o U 
 
 
 I... 
 
 ^, 
 
 ^oV^ 
 
 -^C 
 
 .^ 
 
 4 c 
 
 
 V 
 
 \^ 
 
 .0- 
 
 .r 
 
 
 
 ,0- 
 
 ■S^. 
 
 ^. 
 
 ^o1 
 
 
 
 ^:ps- 
 
 v^e^'J' 
 
 ♦ o : o ^ <^^ 
 
 <>^ 
 
 
 A 
 
 ^ o"^ ° " ° 
 
 .-T-y?/:^-: 
 
 
 
A LOVER'S ROSARY 
 
A LOVER'S ROSARY 
 
 y.y BY 
 
 W. E. p. FRENCH 
 
 Captain^ U. S. Army 
 
 Omnia Vincit Amor^^ 
 
 NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON 
 THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 1909 
 
'?•,■3S'>^ 
 
 fS3 
 
 u 
 
 k^' 
 
 \'^'' 
 
 Copyright, 1909, by 
 THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 248194 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Consecration 7 
 
 A Lover's Beads 8 
 
 The Prelude 9 
 
 Affinity 10 
 
 The Meeting 11 
 
 Premonition 12 
 
 The First Parting 13 
 
 Love-Fear ... 14 
 
 The Interlude 15 
 
 Fate l6 
 
 The Next Meeting 17 
 
 The Moon-Magnet 18 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Walk 19 
 
 A Love-Word 20 
 
 My Lady's Name 21 
 
 Love's Wooing 22 
 
 The Courtship 23 
 
 Love-Light 24 
 
 My Lady's Eyes 25 
 
 Untold 26 
 
 The Heart's Handicap 27 
 
 Love's Sacrifice 28 
 
 Antithesis 29 
 
 Vicarious Atonement 30 
 
 Love's Compromise 31 
 
 A Woman's Love 32 
 
 The Query 33 
 
 Love-Troth 34 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Betrothal 35 
 
 Love's Mouth 36 
 
 The First Kiss 37 
 
 True Love 38 
 
 The Answer 39, 40 
 
 Love's Eucharist 41 
 
 The Marriage-Feast 42 
 
 Together 43 
 
 The Heart's Home 44 
 
 Sleep 45 
 
 My Lady Sleeps 46 
 
 The Gift of Pity 47 
 
 The First Tears 48 
 
 The Roses' Birth 49 
 
 Love's Trinity 50 
 
 A Lover's Toast 51 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chateau Yquem 52 
 
 The House of Joy 53 
 
 Love-Absence 54 
 
 Amor — Deity 55 
 
 A Lover's Creed 56 
 
 Idol-Worship 57 
 
 The Idol and the Altar 58 
 
 The Heart's Censer 59 
 
 The Love-Prayer 60 
 
 Love-Music 6l 
 
 The Heart's Hymn 62 
 
 Love's Hope 63 
 
 A Lover's Petition 64 
 
 Thanatopsis . . . 65 
 
 Immortality 66 
 
 Love's Apotheosis 67 
 
CONSECRATION 
 
 J^nHESE beads of rhyme, though rough and poor they 
 
 Lack-luster, glimm'ring by reflected beam, 
 
 Unworthy minstrels to exalted theme, 
 
 Ill-strung on thread ill-twisted clumsily, — 
 
 Are, yet, the first-fruits of my love for thee. 
 
 Take them, divine one, take them, thou God's dream 
 
 Incarnate in sweet womanhood, nor deem 
 
 Them all unfit to be Love's rosary. 
 
 Giver of joy that slayeth fear and pain. 
 Dear tender sovereign of my life and fate, 
 Stoop from thy throne in my heart's shrine, and deign 
 To let thy gentle soul inviolate 
 Hearken unto my kneeling soul's refrain — 
 That soul to thee I humbly consecrate. 
 
 7 
 
a 
 
 A LOVER'S BEADS 
 
 PON a filament of love I string 
 A lover's loving thoughts^ then bid them cling 
 About one woman's heart, thus girdled 'round 
 By thread of silence strung with beads of sound. 
 
<3 
 
 THE PRELUDE 
 
 HIS is the story of my love for thee 
 From that dear moment when my rev'rent eyes^ 
 Wond'ring, beheld thee, and a glad surprise 
 (I know it now: it is borne home to me; 
 But then I sensed it only dreamily) 
 That I my dream-god now might idolize, 
 My angel sent in pity from kind skies 
 To make me live my life more worthily, 
 
 Stole softly through the body's fleshly sheath 
 Into the man's soul waiting underneath 
 For some sure pledge of immortality. 
 It came : great love shall conquer time and death, 
 And loving lips that breathe farewell to breath 
 Shall whisper password to eternity. 
 
 9 
 
a 
 
 AFFINITY 
 
 LIKE in force^ in key, in spirit-tone, 
 Two atoms, flung afar in trackless space, 
 Outstrip the light-lance by the Sun-God thrown- 
 And love-drawn souls at last meet face to face. 
 
 10 
 
w 
 
 THE MEETING 
 
 HEN first we met I did not understand, 
 I did not fully know what thou wouldst be 
 When love's sure knowledge came at last to me: 
 Yet, in that instant when I touched thy hand, 
 From out the past some subtile, unseen strand 
 Wherewith I once had been fast bound to thee 
 Tightened about my heart right suddenly, 
 And premonition's bridge the future spann'd. 
 
 Prescience or intuition? This I knew, — 
 Strangely, yet surely, — that thy path and mine 
 Had touched, would touch again, would intertwine, 
 Merging, perchance, in one, I held the clue 
 Of joys long dead, of joys to bloom anew — 
 Held it, but knew not that I held Fate's sign. 
 
 11 
 
c 
 
 PREMONITION 
 
 HERE are moments when each human soul hath 
 listened 
 
 For a voice in the deep sea of silence drowned; 
 And some coming thought, by spoken word unchristened, 
 Hath passed o'er it as the shadow of a sound. 
 
 12 
 
I 
 
 THE FIRST PARTING 
 
 WENT from out th}^ presence back to life 
 And common things of life and ev'ry day, 
 Half-forced, half-willing humbly to obey 
 The swift thought-current, which, with mem'ries rife. 
 My soul reft from its peace to days of strife. 
 Whirled it o'er pools of pain, deeps of dismay. 
 Foamed through the darkened past, the future gray, 
 And bore me ever nearer thee — my wife ! 
 
 So the prophetic fingers of the past 
 Strayed o'er the keys of long-forgotten days. 
 Evoking melodies my heart half knew 
 In some vague fashion, but could not hold fast — 
 Like faint and far-off notes heard through a maze 
 Of other sounds — who knows if false or true? 
 
 13 
 
LOVE-FEAR 
 
 ^<HE fear of God? Nay; 'tis a little fear: 
 ^^ The strong soul dreads not wrath, and looks above 
 The sword to its desire. Ah! far more drear 
 The fear that goeth hand-in-hand with love. 
 
 14 
 
H 
 
 THE INTERLUDE 
 
 ONG time I quelled the craving of my heart, — 
 Heart-hungered by the sweet allurement of thee,- 
 Long fought love's madness and for sanity, 
 For duty, for ambition, for the part 
 I longed to play in life. Ay, from the start, 
 I sought to break the spell of destiny 
 That drowned my will and wishes like a sea — 
 O fool, to match man's mind against Love's art ! 
 
 So, at the first, I feared thee, feared thy power; — 
 I, with the nomad's dread of curb or chain; — 
 For I was free, — no passion snared my will, — 
 And knew that when Love came his mingled dower 
 Would be close-fettered ecstasy and pain. 
 His mandate to wild life-waves, " Peace, be still ! " 
 
 15 
 
FATE 
 
 //^AIRED, torn apart by cataclysmic change, 
 
 -* ■ Whirled to the ends of space; naught can estrange 
 
 The twinned souls harking back, love-bound, yet free; 
 
 For Lord Love's other name is Destiny. 
 
 16 
 
a 
 
 THE NEXT MEETING 
 
 GAIN I saw thee, passing in a crowd 
 Of men and women. Gracious, sweet, serene, 
 Thy grace-crowned head erect, thine eyes' soft sheen 
 Ennobling where it fell. My manhood bowed 
 In homage to thee, rising, strong and proud. 
 To meet its queen, as, tense and clear and keen. 
 Swift knowledge smote me that, by ways unseen. 
 My love had come, and asked to be endowed 
 
 With life's love-broken bread and spirit's wine. 
 Thou didst not have to ask, dear: all was thine. 
 And waited but thy coming to give thee 
 Heart-adoration, soul-idolatry. 
 
 The worship that was thine when time was young, 
 That shall be thine when Love's last song is sung. 
 
 17 
 
THE MOON-MAGNET 
 
 HE Ocean does obeisance to Night's Guest; 
 The tides, her face adoring^ swell and swoon; 
 And love-tide leaping in a lover's breast 
 Floods 'neath the silvern silence of the moon. 
 
 IS 
 
a 
 
 THE WALK 
 
 T last we walked together^ thou and I, 
 Beneath soft benison of kindly moon; 
 And^ to my fancy, the night seemed to swoon, 
 Enraptured of thee — earth and air and sky 
 Did homage. And thy lover's heart was nigh 
 The breaking-strain to tell thee (over soon, 
 O love?) how he of life asked just one boon — 
 The right to sing to thee love's lullaby. 
 
 Ay, 'midst the glamour and the witchery 
 Of that dear hour, I dared dream thou wouldst be 
 j^I^r very own, that some night I should keep 
 Close watch and ward o'er all thy beauty's charms. 
 Luring thee gently to dim shores of sleep 
 Within the cradle of my loving arms. 
 
 19 
 
A LOVE-WORD 
 
 ©Y mother given when on loving breast, 
 Crooning, she rocked her baby to warm rest ; 
 |kVhat sweeter sound to lover ever fares 
 Than the fond, childish name his love-queen bears? 
 
 20 
 
MY LADY'S NAME 
 
 yp^INE own, I prayed once for a name for thee, 
 ^^^ Fond, tender, scintillant with joy, heart-wrought 
 In glowing beauty on fair loom of thought; 
 A love-wove word, attuned to melody; 
 With fragrance fecund; keyed to harmony 
 Of wondrous color; sweet with sweetness caught 
 From all sweet sights and sounds ; and breathing naught 
 But the hymned praise of my idolatry. 
 
 Ah ! to the great Lord Love I made my prayer 
 For that dear word ; and, lo ! from out the gloom 
 I heard his wings fan in the silent room. 
 He touched my heart, then spoke: *' The name is there.'* 
 "What is it. Love?" I asked. The answer came: — 
 The God sighed softly as he breathed thy name. 
 
 21 
 
G 
 
 LOVE'S WOOING 
 
 HE Love-Lord to my Lady's heart laid siege. 
 By making full surrender of his own. 
 His gracious captor, now his sovereign liege, 
 Gaoled Love for life in her heart's cell, alone. 
 
 22 
 
H 
 
 THE COURTSHIP 
 
 OVE wooed thee for me. Dumb my secret lay, 
 Close-caverned in my heart — laired in the dark, 
 The night of silence. Even so the lark 
 Enshrines beneath warm breast-plumes' soft array 
 The potency of song, which shall obey 
 The wak'ning summons of the Dawn's first spark. 
 So my dumb heart obeyed its hierarch, 
 When night of silence blossomed to love's day 
 
 Beneath compelling glory of thy glance, 
 Which sought the deep-hid secret in its lair. 
 Then tongue and eyes — the heart's fond sycophants — 
 Clamored my adoration and my prayer 
 To sweet, white soul of thee who art to me 
 My liie's high hope, my spirit's destiny. 
 
 23 
 
fi 
 
 LOVE-LIGHT 
 
 AIR is the dawn's rose bloom in wak'ning skies, 
 Fair is the star-gleam when day fades afar; 
 But sweeter luminance than sun or star. 
 The tender love-light in one woman's eyes. 
 
 24 
 
MY LADY'S EYES 
 
 CLEAR wells of liquid tenderness and light; 
 Seas for the soul to bathe in wond'ringly; 
 Pools of twin raptures where charmed Love may see 
 The simulacrum of himself, grown bright 
 In those fair mirrors. Oh! supreme delight^ 
 To plunge my soul in loving ecstasy 
 Through thy sweet eyes into sweet depths of thee — 
 Deeps fragrant, soft and warm as summer night. 
 
 O Love, I love the casements of thy soul, 
 Whence thy soul's lamp's pure radiance flings its bar 
 Of love-light to me, and thy heart's sweet fire 
 Shines into my heart's dusk, illumes the scroll 
 Of life with glow of my life's avatar — 
 Born of an angel's love, a god's desire, 
 
 95 
 
UNTOLD 
 
 "T'LLIMITABLE sands of love, each grain 
 ^"^ A love-word subtly wrought of j oy and pain ; 
 But under Love's unfathomable sea 
 Elusive shift the sands for thee and me. 
 
 26 
 
o 
 
 THE HEART'S HANDICAP 
 
 EAR mine, I can but feed thee love's small grains 
 I cannot tell thee all: — that may not be: — 
 The fondest secrets in Love's treasury 
 Lie in the inmost vaults, where silence reigns; 
 And Love, the keeper, to no lover deigns 
 To give the mystical, word-warded key 
 That can unlock the vast vocabulary 
 Of sequent soul-speech that Love's soul contains. 
 
 So, though I strive to mint each thought intense 
 Into fair coin of words, the impotence 
 Of language blurs the heart's idolatry; 
 And love's last secret will be secret still 
 Until the veil of flesh be rent, until 
 Thy £oul to mine cries, " Open, Sesame." 
 
 27 
 
c 
 
 LOVE'S SACRIFICE 
 
 HE savor of burnt-offering, the smoke 
 
 Of altar-fires since man first awoke 
 To life have risen to the gods above; 
 But Love doth sacrifice love's self to love. 
 
 28 
 
ANTITHESIS 
 
 yj^Y love for thee is holy, high and pure: 
 ^'^ Its very pulse of fire is sacred flame, 
 
 White and uplifting, free from spark of shame, 
 Clean as the thoughts thy fond heart doth immure 
 In its sweet casket. And, of this be sure: 
 If love for thee called down the world's shrill blame, 
 And scorn and danger threatened name and fame, 
 I would but make the love-links more secure. 
 
 Ay ! I can find the hot wish in my heart 
 That this life passion were a splendid sin, 
 A deathless crime, a soul's eternal bane 
 And bar to heav'n; for I would stand apart 
 From man and God thy soul to enter in. 
 And br^nd me for thy sake with mark of Cain. 
 
 29 
 
VICARIOUS ATONEMENT 
 
 ^rtHAT lover worthy of the sacred name 
 
 ^^ But would endure the stripes, the cross, the shame, 
 The pains of death and endless fire of hell. 
 To shield one soul not wisely loved, but well! 
 
LOVE'S COMPROMISE 
 
 OEAR^ I would suffer for thee. I would fain 
 Unto myself from thee all sorrows take, 
 The hurts that hurt the flesh, the spirit's ache. 
 With my heart's lips I'd suck from thy heart's vein 
 The venom of the poisoned fangs of pain. 
 Grief should not touch thee, though my heart should 
 
 break 
 With doubled torments, — sweet for thy sweet sake, — 
 Nor life endure the added torture's strain. 
 
 Ah ! the wish may not be. Then let me share 
 
 Thy days of weariness, thy nights of care. 
 
 The anxious hour, the times when life goes wrong. 
 
 Into my willing heart let fall thy tears: 
 
 My heart shall redistill them through the years 
 
 Into some soothing sacrament of song. 
 
 31 
 
A WOMAN'S LOVE 
 
 ^y^HAT god shall sing the theme of this great song? 
 
 ^"^ What angel play it with consummate art? 
 What lover pay^ in life however long, 
 For the devotion of one woman's heart? 
 
 32 
 
THE QUERY 
 
 ^T^HY shouldst thou love me? What am I to thee^ 
 ^-^ Thou fair and fragrant flower of womanhood. 
 Thou sweet epitome of ev'ry good, 
 Thou apotheosis of ecstasy? 
 The radiance of thy love shines out of me 
 As from a jewel set in some black wood — 
 Thy heart in mine. Sweet Heart, hast understood? 
 Thou pearl encased in lusterless ebony ! 
 
 I am so poor in all things save our love, — 
 
 So rich in that and thee, — so lacking of 
 
 Each attribute thy fancy to ensnare. 
 
 Such misfit for thy beauty ev'rywhere. 
 
 Once more : — Why dost thou love me ? Dost thou know ? 
 
 Dear, is it not because I love thee so? 
 
 33 
 
u 
 
 LOVE-TROTH 
 
 NSPONSORED by a vow or spoken word, 
 By mortal ear unnoted and unheard, 
 The pledge of passion speeds to the heart's goal; 
 Love's troth is writ in silence on the soul. 
 
 34 
 
THE BETROTHAL 
 
 ^^f^LOVE to think we were betrothed that day 
 ^"^^ When thou, love-luring in thy loveliness, 
 Didst greet my eyes, and, soft as a caress. 
 Thy shy glance touched my face. I felt the sway 
 Of Fate's prophetic prelude to love's lay 
 Thrill through my being, then a vague distress 
 As my stirred spirit broke from life's duress 
 To seek and greet thine own. They met half-way ! 
 
 Our souls' betrothal, dearest! After, came 
 
 Clasped hands, joined hearts, pledge of the sacred name. 
 
 Then, — thing of wonder and of mystery, 
 
 Dream-joy beyond fond hope's imagining! — 
 
 I was that vassal, bond and serf to thee. 
 
 Became thy heart-lord and thy love-crowned king. 
 
 35 
 
e 
 
 LOVE'S MOUTH 
 
 AIR love-wrought portal whence escape love's sighs, 
 
 Carved, scarlet doorway of shy, tender speech. 
 Arched gate of laughter and caressing cries 
 That bid love-hungered lips meet each on each ! 
 
 36 
 
c 
 
 THE FIRST KISS 
 
 HOUGH I in life all other joys should miss, 
 Lo ! I have had one moment gemmed with all 
 The gems of joy. O moment past recall 
 By God Himself ! who cannot alter this 
 Undreamed of rapture, unimagined bliss, 
 When first I held my Lady's lips in thrall 
 'Neath mine own lips, and — at her Love-Lord's call — 
 Her mouth's bud blossomed into that first kiss. 
 
 My blood stood still that instant, then sped fast 
 
 Through glad, rejoicing veins to tell my heart — 
 
 Her panegyrist and encomiast — 
 
 How I from all men had been set apart 
 
 By her mouth's chrism ; and each pulse, mad with pride, 
 
 Thrilled through the body her kiss deified. 
 
TRUE LOVE 
 
 BDAWN of tender and uplifting light; 
 A fierce high-noon with dazzling splendor bright; 
 An aftermath of quiet joys' soft sheen; 
 A night wherein Hope's pole-star shines serene. 
 
 38 
 
THE ANSWER 
 I. 
 
 now do I love thee ? Even as a child 
 Loves the sweet mother on whose gentle breast 
 He seeks for pity, comfort, and the rest 
 Of warm, enfolding arms that soothe the wild, 
 Unmotived fear that thrills him, till beguiled 
 By siren voice, by tender hands caressed. 
 Of life's sharp ache his heart is dispossessed 
 And he, in sleep, with life is reconciled. 
 
 How do I love thee? Even with the love 
 Of a true woman to whom love is all 
 Of life, not " thing apart," who holds above 
 Her honor him for whose sake, past recall. 
 She gave it freely, glorying that she 
 The louder sang in Love's antiphony. 
 
 39 
 
B 
 
 THE ANSWER 
 
 II. 
 
 OW do I love thee? Even as a man 
 Who shrines one woman in his heart's strong hold, 
 Adoring her, — her only, — uncontrolled 
 By any law save Love's, begetting plan 
 To shape his life to hers, to make fond span 
 Of interlacing arms their lives enfold 
 In deathless unity — twin souls enrolled 
 Upon Fate's love-writ scroll since time began. 
 
 How do I love thee? Even as God, who by 
 Disintegration of the infinite 
 Creates, — His death a birth-pang exquisite, — 
 And loves all life — Himself being all. So I, 
 Of God a part, love thee, wrought by His art 
 From out the most divine drop of His heart. 
 
 40 
 
o 
 
 LOVE'S EUCHARIST 
 
 GOD of LovC;, be Thou the celebrant 
 When lovers break thy wafer, drink thy cup 
 Spread Thou the altar, let their spirits sup 
 On mystic bread and wine of thy romaunt. 
 
 41 
 
THE MARRIAGE-FEAST 
 
 yi^Y soul-wife^ my one woman, we are one! 
 
 ^^^ Come close: hearts may not live by bread alone. 
 Nay, but the soul lives in the light that shone 
 But now in thy dear eyes, — love's risen sun, — 
 And my soul dwells with thine till time be done. 
 Thou art my nuptial feast, — ay, by God's throne. 
 Bread of my life thou art ! — thou, my heart's own. 
 My love-feast exquisite while life-sands run. 
 
 Lo ! we are love-athirst. Love bids us drink, 
 And 'raptured lips seek the life-flagon's brink; 
 For by his necromancy Eros, King, 
 The thaumaturgist, the blind god divine. 
 Hath wrought a miracle — Oh, wondrous thing: 
 The water of dull life is love's red wine! 
 
 42 
 
G 
 
 TOGETHER 
 
 OGETHER ! Heart to heart, and hand in hand I 
 Forgotten are the longing, the despair. 
 The empty arms, the yearning heart's demand. 
 Lord Love, this is thine answer to love's prayer. 
 
 43 
 
THE HEART'S HOME 
 
 UNLIGHT^ and moonlight, and the stars' far sheen; 
 The mountains, placid river, restless sea; 
 The country's quiet, moving pageantry 
 Of city's life; the spring's flamboyant green, 
 The summer's glory, autumn's bloom, and keen 
 Etched frost-scapes marvelous: to thee and me 
 These beauties keyed to our love-symphony, 
 While high-rayed love-light sanctified each scene. 
 
 In that love-hallowed room we first called home 
 
 Beneath blue arch of the eternal dome; 
 
 In sylvan silences, or crowded mart; 
 
 On throbbing steamer, or on pulsing car; — 
 
 My heart-home, dear, is wheresoe'er thou art. 
 
 Where thou, our love, and I together are. 
 
 M 
 
H 
 
 SLEEP 
 
 OVE watched the first two lovers till, their breath 
 By kisses smothered, they were prey to Death; 
 Then, as Night calms the fierce desire of Day, 
 Love ordained Sleep, lest too great joy should slay. 
 
 45 
 
If, 
 
 MY LADY SLEEPS 
 
 VE, Sleep and I watch in the firelight's glow. 
 Ah ! I have waited all my life to see 
 This joy befall. Beat softly, heart, lest she, 
 Pillowed so lightly on thee, hear the flow 
 Of thy proud, 'raptured tide. O heart, beat low. 
 Until Day cometh to rob Sleep and thee; 
 Then shalt thou wake her with mad reveille 
 Of drumming pulse, while Love and I bestow 
 
 Upon her sleep-kissed eyes, her sleep-sweet lips 
 
 Her lover's kiss, which shall end Sleep's eclipse 
 
 And bring her back to Life and Love and me. 
 
 But, hush ! this is Sleep's hour ; his tryst she keeps ; 
 
 And I, her sentinel, watch lovingly 
 
 While, cradled in my arms, my Lady sleeps. 
 
 46 
 
THE GIFT OF PITY 
 
 a WOMAN, heart-wrung, in the dawn of time, 
 Mourned o'er life's broken cup, love's death-spilt wine ; 
 Till Pity touched her hot eyes, scorched with pain. 
 And quenched the fire with soothing tears' soft rain. 
 
 47 
 
o 
 
 THE FIRST TEARS 
 
 ANGEL- WOMAN, teach me to forget, 
 As Time unwinds the endless skein of years, 
 The heart-pang, barbed with sudden, jealous fears, 
 That stabbed me through when first thine eyes grew wet 
 With some dead sorrow, some unvoiced regret 
 From out the past, ere Love made us compeers. 
 Into my soul they fell, thy sweet, hot tears. 
 And burned so deep the white scars throb there yet. 
 
 I could not help thee; — that I knew full well; — 
 But all of life went swiftly out to thee 
 In one great wave of silent sympathy. 
 My heart ached 'neath thy bosom's troubled swell, 
 My dumb lips kissed the warm drops as they fell, 
 And dumbly strove to ease thine agony. 
 
 48 
 
o 
 
 THE ROSES' BIRTH 
 
 NCE Love's Queen slept, and Lord Love kissed her 
 breast 
 
 And bosom-blossoms rosy as the dawn; 
 His mouth the petals of her lips caressed; — 
 And roses, white and pink and red, were born. 
 
 49 
 
a 
 
 LOVE'S TRINITY 
 
 ROSE of love blooms in my soul for thee, 
 Whiter than these white roses that aspire 
 
 To swoon above thy heart, the deep-tuned lyre 
 
 Upon which Eros plays the symphony 
 
 Of a love-lyric sweet as life to me. 
 
 These pink blooms are two breast-dreams of desire; 
 
 The red, deep ruby-bosomed buds of fire; 
 
 All are the roses of love's trinity. 
 
 The pink and red will fade with youth's brief day. 
 But the soul-flower shall endure for aye. 
 The pledge and promise of eternal good ; 
 White as its emblem, fragrant, fair, serene, 
 Pure as the earth-life of the Nazarene, 
 Or thine, my rose of stainless womanhood. 
 
 50 
 
A LOVER'S TOAST 
 
 EFORE I drink my love^ dear love^ to thee^ 
 kiss the cup^ then plunge my soul therein; 
 Now change^ so when thy sweet mouth pledges me 
 My soul shall enter heaven purged of sin. 
 
 Q^l 
 
 51 
 
c 
 
 CHATEAU YQUEM 
 
 HIS is the vine's soul and the grape's glad gold, 
 A sunbeam in solution, a calm sea 
 Of golden silence hoarding jealousy 
 In amber depths thought-pearls of manifold 
 Love rhapsodies. This yellow nectar old. 
 Whose subtile fire warmeth amorously 
 The heart's red wine, is vinted melody, 
 Fermented fragrance, liquid joy untold. 
 
 O my High Priestess, this is our love's wine, 
 Spilled blood of Amor for his eucharist — > 
 
 And thou the celebrant — my heart with thine 
 Making communion — thy mouth's ruby cist 
 The chalice — lo ! the topaz of the vine 
 Is transubstantiate since thy lips it kissed. 
 
 52 
 
n 
 
 THE HOUSE OF JOY 
 
 OVE vainly sought for Joy through endless space; 
 But Joy, with cunning and consummate art, 
 Had, by my Lady's sovereign act of grace, 
 A life-lease taken of her gentle heart. 
 
 53 
 
® 
 
 LOVE-ABSENCE 
 
 » 
 HEN thou art absent all life misses thee. 
 Love's sun, o'ercast, strives not to pierce the maze 
 Of grief-wrack, and my empty arms amaze 
 The darkness that they clasp so longingly. 
 Sear leaf and withered petal on Love's lea, 
 Dead blossoms on each path by which he strays. 
 Hushed the heart's music, sad the hymn of praise, 
 The soul-psalm changed to broken threnody. 
 
 Then memory fares forth in eager quest 
 Of jeweled moments spilt in affluence 
 Of time and joy — love's ardors and its calms; 
 Dole of close kisses (so Love giveth alms) ; 
 Rich bosom-treasures hoarded to the breast 
 That now aches dully in its exigence. 
 
 54 
 
o 
 
 AMOR— DEITY 
 
 MNIPOTENT, omniscient, without flaw, 
 The basic will around, beneath, above, 
 Through all. Crowned ! Regnant ! Lo ! our God is Love^ 
 And Love fulfilling of eternal Law. 
 
 55 
 
A LOVER'S CREED 
 
 now shall a man by searching find out God ? " 
 Ah ! I have sought amidst the panoply 
 Of gilded fanes where thousands bent the knee, 
 And surpliced priests with solemn beck and nod 
 The old faint paths of a dead faith retrod. 
 But, there and elsewhere, unavailingly : 
 For me no mandate stilled the storm-swept sea, 
 No burning bush bade me approach unshod. 
 
 Yet must the craving of the human heart — 
 Adrift upon Life's ocean without chart — 
 To worship something find way for its will; 
 So I sought vainly through the years until 
 Love brought me to thy feet, and, kneeling there, 
 I found Love's God and to Her made my prayer. 
 
 56 
 
IDOL-WORSHIP 
 
 if^ APTURE of love, its strife and after-calm; 
 
 -^^ Bruise of fond lips and lips' repentant balm ; 
 Adoring, searching senses — endless quest 
 Of love-evangels breathed from her sweet breast. 
 
 57 
 
X 
 
 THE IDOL AND THE ALTAR 
 
 HAVE an Idol and an altar-stone, 
 The Idol flawless as a fair, white pearl, 
 With soul-light lustrous, luminous with swirl 
 Of opalescent gleam, sweet tongued with tone, 
 Breeze-borne, of soft-blown heavenly saxophone, 
 Crowned with rich, fragrant tresses, whence one curl 
 Against her throat's warm ivory loves to furl — 
 Sweet with bewild'ring sweetness all her own ! 
 
 In the groined temple of my inmost heart, 
 Behold my Love-God's altar and her shrine: 
 The face illumed above them, hers; — yet mine; — 
 The kneeling soul that worships, mine, but part 
 Of her, since I am hers, her very own 
 By right of godship on that altar-stone. 
 
 58 
 
THE HEART'S CENSER 
 
 eED acolyte of Love, — Arch Priest and King,- 
 Breathe on the coals, let thy hot censer swing 
 Till, pure and high, burneth the sacred fire. 
 Sweet with frankincense of the soul's desire. 
 
 59 
 
o 
 
 THE LOVE-PRAYER 
 
 THOU to whom my spirit bends the knee, 
 To whom the incense of my heart doth rise. 
 To whom I lift adoring, rev'rent eyes, 
 Woman divine, Love-God, Divinity! 
 Hear now the prayer thy lover makes to thee. 
 Whom with his very breath he glorifies. 
 Soul of a sunbeam streaming from far skies 
 Where Love is law and Love's soul deity. 
 
 By wondrous miracle of love benign 
 Cast from my heart that heart's unworthiness. 
 Fill it with all a man's heart should possess — 
 Then take and keep it in thy heart's pure shrine! 
 Hold thou my spirit in thy sweet control, 
 And make it fit companion for thy Soul. 
 
 60 
 
LOVE-MUSIC 
 
 HROM vibrant heart-strings, pean, hymn and prayer 
 On swift-winged notes of song make earth and air 
 Thrill to love's list'ning soul with music's bloom 
 And rhythmic-petaled melody's perfume. 
 
 61 
 
THE HEART'S HYMN 
 
 O WHITE, pure soul with never spot or taint, 
 Thou emanation from the Heart Divine 
 Which made thee woman and which made thee mine ! 
 My lover-wife, my tender, dove-eyed saint, 
 The sweetness of thee makes my spirit faint 
 With joy's excess. I lift my soul to thine. 
 Oblation making of my heart's red wine 
 In adoration that defies constraint. 
 
 Soul of my soul, child-woman fond and fair, 
 Thou art life's fragrance and its bloom to me, 
 Its light, its color and its harmony, 
 Sunshine and star-sheen, vivifying air — 
 My priceless pearl of gracious womanhood. 
 Incarnate spirit of God's highest good. 
 
 62 
 
c 
 
 LOVE'S HOPE 
 
 HE grave? Nay, fear it not: Love holds the key; 
 For Death is but Sleep's brother; and the pall 
 That drapes so darkly over each and all 
 Is love-raised curtain of futurity. 
 
 63 
 
o 
 
 A LOVER'S PETITION 
 
 NATURE, Mother, Goddess, hear my prayer! 
 
 This woman hath been joy's epitome 
 Unto my soul. She holds my life in fee. 
 From fragrant meshes of her warm, soft hair 
 To her dear feet, I love her everywhere. 
 And fain would shield her from the poignancy 
 Of one great grief she cannot bring to me. 
 One sorrow I may neither take nor share. 
 
 Spare her the pain of seeing my dead face, 
 Spare her the waiting and the agony 
 Of life bereft, of tears I cannot dry. 
 Take her, O Mother! in her trysting-place 
 Upon my heart. Then take my memory 
 And, out of sweet compassion, let me die. 
 
 64 
 
u 
 
 THANATOPSIS 
 
 OVE, broken-hearted, kissed Death's frozen lips, 
 Then listened for some sign, with bated breath. 
 Hope heard these words, " This is but life's eclipse; 
 The soul is quickened in embrace of Death." 
 
 65 
 
IMMORTALITY 
 
 ^y^HETHER Death find thee — as I pray he may- 
 ^^ Close-pillowed in my arms, and thy last sigh 
 Breathe on my mouth thy pure soul passing by: 
 Whether upon thy loving breast I lay 
 My tired head as life-fire fades to gray: 
 Whether together, or apart, we die; 
 We are of the immortals, — ^thou and I, — 
 And death but dawning of eternal day. 
 
 Whither thy heaven, there shall I find bliss; 
 Whither thou goest, there I, too, shall be; 
 Whether our souls be wed in love's last kiss ; 
 Whether I go before, or follow thee; 
 Such love as ours is fear's antithesis. 
 Such love as ours is immortality. 
 
 66 
 
o 
 
 LOVE'S APOTHEOSIS 
 
 EAR, we are gods, and this — eternity! 
 Our souls have passed beyond death, time, and space, 
 Together cleaving in love's last embrace 
 To merge for aye into identity. 
 
 67 
 
q^ , s - • / -r> V 
 
 
 "oK 
 
 ^^-;^ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 * » 
 
 
 
 
 1 I T 
 
 ^O 
 
 -^^ 
 
 
 
 °o 
 
 
 > 
 
^^^^ '\^#IN)^/ ^^^ % 
 
 cj.^ 
 
 ^. 
 
 ;'^#%\ 
 
 <ii 
 
 -^ 
 
 vv- 
 
 
 .^ 
 
 \^' 
 
 V 
 
 
 .^■ 
 
 
 ^ /,A^C^ 
 
 
 ;, o^^^^ ^ ^ 
 
 
 
 
 o > 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 >r^. 
 
 'y V 
 
 A 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 <L 
 
 ^^ 
 
 d 
 
 ^. 
 
 ^^o^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 '^' V" 
 
 •^oV 
 
 
 
 -^0 
 
 
 .^ 
 
 4 o 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 D^: 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 o ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3^ 
 
 o 
 
 
 ,0 
 
 f^