Come, for I will not stay: LIGHT LOVE Come, for house and bed are ready. OH sad thy lot before I came, But sadder when I go, Ah sure bed and house, For better and worse, for life and My presence but a flash of flame, A transitory glow Between two snow. barren wastes like What wilt thou do when I am gone? Where wilt thou rest, my dear? For cold thy bed to rest upon, And cold the falling year Whose withered leaves are lost and sere,' She hushed the baby at her breast: She rocked it on her knee: 'And I will rest my lonely rest, Warmed with the thought of thee, Rest lulled to rest by memory.' She hushed the baby with her kiss, She hushed it with her breast: 'Is death so sadder much than this? Sure death that builds a nest For those who elsewhere cannot rest.' 'Oh sad thy note, my mateless dove, With tender nestling cold: But hast thou ne'er another love Left from the days of old To build thy nest of silk and gold? LOVE FROM THE NORTH Guiding the seekers to their port of rest, 329 Grew gross in soulless love, a Guiding them till night's shuffling One famished died for love. shadows flee; Or that I were a spring to which, opprest two of three Thus Took death for love and won him With desert drought, some wearied One droned in sweetness like a wayfarer Comes from the barren regions of the West. Then should I stand at peace, and should not err, Or lighten and make beautiful the sky, Or make more glad than frank incense and myrrh. But now it is not so: I, only I, Am changed and sad and cold, while in my soul The very fountain of delight is dry. 12 December 1856. A TRIAD THREE sang of love together: one with lips Crimson, with cheeks and bosom in a glow, Flushed to the yellow hair and finger-tips; fattened bee: All on the threshold, yet all short of life. 18 December 1856. LOVE FROM THE NORTH I HAD a love in soft south land, Beloved through April far in May; He waited on my lightest breath, And never dared to say me nay. He saddened if my cheer was sad, My yes his yes, my nay his nay. The wedding hour was come, the aisles Were flushed with sun and flowers I pacing balanced in my thoughts: And one there sang who soft and My bridegroom answered in his And one was blue with famine after When through the flashing nave 1 love, Who like a harpstring snapped heard A struggle and resounding 'nay.' The burden of what those were sing- Bridemaids and bridegroom shrank A queen in opal or in ruby dress, A saint, an angel-every canvas means And she with true kind eyes looks back on him, Fair as the moon and joyful as the light: Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim; Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright; Not as she is, but as she fills his dream. 24 December 1856. FATA MORGANA A BLUE-EYED phantom far before sun: Like lead I chase it evermore, I pant and run. It breaks the sunlight bound on Goes singing as it leaps along I laugh, it is so brisk and gay; ONE DAY I WILL tell you when they met : The same one meaning, neither In the mossful turf were set, more nor less. He feeds upon her face by day and night, While meeting birds made haste to sing And build with right good will. |