RECOMPENSE I MUST not think of thee; and, tired, yet strong, I shun the thought that lurks in all delight The thought of thee and in the blue heaven's height, Oh, just beyond the fairest thoughts that throng This breast, the thought of thee waits, hidden yet bright; I must stop short of thee the whole day long. But when sleep comes to close each difficult day, With the first dream that comes with the first sleep, PAKENHAM BEATTY. BIRD OF PASSAGE AS THE day's last light is dying, As the night's first breeze is sighing, I send you, love, like a messenger-dove, my thought through the distance flying; Let it perch on your sill; or, better, Let it feel your soft hand's fetter, While you search and bring, from under its wing, love, hidden away like a letter. EDGAR FAWCETT. THE LOVE-LETTER THE way I read a letter 's this: And then I go the furthest off, Then, glancing narrow at the wall, And narrow at the floor, For firm conviction of a mouse Not exorcised before, I FEAR THY KISSES I FEAR thy kisses, gentle maiden ; Ever to burthen thine. I fear thy mien, thy tones, thy motion; Innocent is the heart's devotion With which I worship thine. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. THE PATRIOT'S BRIDE OH! give me back that royal dream When I have seen your sunny eyes And fondly hoped, dear Love, your heart from mine And laid me down to dream that dream divine, But true, methought, Of how my life's long task would be, to make yours blessed as it ought. To learn to love sweet Nature more For your sweet sake, To watch with you dear friend, with you! Its wonders break; The sparkling spring in that bright face to see Its mirror make · On summer morns to hear the sweet birds sing By linn and lake; And know your voice, your magic voice, could still a grander music wake! To wake the old weird world that sleeps In Irish lore; The strains sweet foreign Spenser sung By Mulla's shore; Dear Curran's airy thoughts, like purple birds Tone's fiery hopes, and all the deathless vows The songs that once our own dear Davis sung - And all those proud old victor-fields Whose memories are the stars that light Long nights of shame; -ah, me! to The Cairn, the Dun, the Rath, the Power, the Keep, In chronicles of clay and stone, how true, how deep Oh! we shall see them all, with her, that dear, dear friend we two have loved the same. Yet ah! how truer, tenderer still That scene of tranquil joy, that happy home The morning smile, that grew a fixed star The ringing laugh, lock'd hands, and all the far Of daily love, that made our daily life diviner than a dream. For still to me, dear Friend, dear Love, Or both dear Wife, Your image comes with serious thoughts, No idle plaything to caress or chide In sport or strife, But my best chosen friend, companion, guide, To walk through life, Link'd hand in hand, two equal, loving friends, true husband and true wife. SIR CHARLES GAVAN DUFFY. TOGETHER I DREAMED of Paradise, and still, I dream'd of Heaven, -with God so near! And each was beautiful; the days and lo, my dream was true, Where you and I through this world's weather Together weave from love a nest For all that's good and sweet and blest To brood in, till it come a face, A voice, a soul, a child's embrace, And then what peace of Bethlehem weather, What songs, as we go on together! Together greet life's solemn real, And think one thought, "each other's sake," WILLIAM C. GANNETT. I SAW TWO CLOUDS AT MORNING I SAW two clouds at morning, Tinged with the rising sun, And in the dawn they floated on, And mingled into one; I thought that morning cloud was blest, It moved so sweetly to the west. I saw two summer currents Flow smoothly to their meeting, And join their course, with silent force, In peace each other greeting; Calm was their course, through banks of green, While dimpling eddies play'd between. Such be your gentle motion, Till life's last pulse shall beat; Like summer's beam, and summer's stream, Float on in joy, to meet A calmer sea where storms shall cease, A purer sky where all is peace. JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD. LOVE'S WISDOM How long I've loved thee, and how well Because, if thou shouldst once divine Or did but once my tongue confess Far, far too plainly thou wouldst see And, guessing what Love's wit should hide, So, though I worship at thy feet, I'll be discreet And all my love shall not be told, And, knowing I was always thine, So I am dumb, to rescue thee From tyranny And, by my silence, I do prove Wisdom and Love! MARGARET DELAND. A WOMAN'S QUESTION BEFORE I trust my fate to thee, Before I peril all for thee, question thy soul to-night for me. I break all slighter bonds, nor feel A shadow of regret : Is there one link within the Past That holds thy spirit yet? Or is thy faith as clear and free as that which I can pledge to thee ? Does there within thy dimmest dreams A possible future shine, Wherein thy life could henceforth breathe, Untouched, unshared by mine? If so, at any pain or cost, O, tell me before all is lost. Look deeper still. If thou canst feel, Within thy inmost soul, That thou hast kept a portion back, While I have staked the whole, Let no false pity spare the blow, but in true mercy tell me so. |