TO ONE I SHALL SEE NO MORE. Come, let me look once more close in your eyes, Come, let me feel the beating of your heart; Our time has ended; we must break the ties; God knows I love you, but we two must part. Nay, do not ask me why I turn away, And why these words at parting seem so cold; Nay, precious, do not sigh and beg me stay;Our dream must be a story left untold. Ah, ere you came, the dead leaves hid my soul, My heart was buried in a shroud of snow; Then, like the Spring across the waste you stole, And made the birds sing and the blossoms blow. How sweet you were, O precious, when you came Come, clasp me once before I turn to go, Heed not these tear-drops as I kiss your feet; How sweet my dreams were, you shall never know, How blissful, blissful, yet how fleet, how fleet! Nay, do not blame me, it is best-is best! PREFACE TO A BOOK OF POEMS. Forever perished seems the age of gold, Ah, in those days Life sipped of morning dew Now is the sordid age of greed and gain: Now bloated Mammon rules the market-place; Ah, we are only struggling pioneers, To blaze the path for others yet to be; Some time that golden age again shall come, PREFACE TO A BOOK OF POEMS. Far in the future, through the jealous haze, That promised land our feet shall never tread, Our hands shall never pluck its flowers and fruits; Our cheeks shall never flush from white to red From passion-pealing of its lovers' lutes. Yet in that purple age I wish one bard To say of me these little words of praise: “He plodded on through sharpened flint and shard, Though sordid cares pursued him all his days. "In darkest hours he wrought with cheerful will: "So, like a priest who guards a temple's light, He trimmed the lamp whose flame was nearly gone: He kept his vow to watch it through the night, And died beside it at the birth of dawn." CARROLL VANCE. We sigh because you passed away so young, When life was like a lute with strings unstrung, But we, not you, deserve the piteous plaint, For us, the slowly creeping steps of age, For us, the sad September's withered sheaves, Best is that death when Life is in its Spring, When morning skies are gowned in blue and gold, Before one bird has ever ceased to sing, And not one forest leaf has yet grown old. CARROLL VANCE. Ah, kindly Fate, forever thus to be, When Love, the wild gazelle, treads not amiss, When pearly-footed Youth forbears to flee, And dimpled Joy defers his farewell kiss! For you, assassin Autumn never comes To stab white-bosomed Summer to the heart, No winds of Winter beat their muffled drums To bid the brilliant tropic birds depart. You shall not see Hope's shattered roses strewn, Nor learn the disillusions of the noon, For you no fairy story came untrue, No Gospel seemed unworthy of belief; The peasant still will be king to you, And every wisp of tares a golden sheaf. Rest, calm and peaceful; you have naught to fear, Who drove all hate and malice from your side, Nor gave one being cause to shed a tear, Until that day, dear boy, on which you died. |