O risen moon! O holy moon!
Stand on the top of Helice,
And if my own true love you see,
Ah! if you see the purple shoon,
The hazel crook, the lad's brown hair,
The goat-skin wrapped about his arm,
Tell him that I am waiting where
The rushlight glimmers in the Farm.

The falling dew is cold and chill,
And no bird sings in Arcady,
The little fauns have left the hill,
Even the tired daffodil

Has closed its gilded doors, and still

My lover comes not back to me.

False moon! False moon! O waning moon!
Where is my own true lover gone,
Where are the lips vermilion,

The shepherd's crook, the purple shoon?
Why spread that silver pavilion,

Why wear that veil of drifting mist?

Ah! thou hast young Endymion,

Thou hast the lips that should be kissed!

Oscar Wilde [1856-1900]

"LOVE IS A TERRIBLE THING"

I WENT out to the farthest meadow,
I lay down in the deepest shadow;

And I said unto the earth, "Hold me,"
And unto the night, "Oh, enfold me!"

And I begged the little leaves to lean
Low and together for a safe screen;

Then to the stars I told my tale:
"That is my home-light, there in the vale,

"And oh, I know that I shall return,
But let me lie first mid the unfeeling fern;

The Ballad of the Angel

"For there is a flame that has blown too near,

And there is a name that has grown too dear,

And there is a fear."

995

And to the still hills and cool earth and far sky I made moan, "The heart in my bosom is not my own!

"Oh, would I were free as the wind on the wing;

Love is a terrible thing!"

Grace Fallow Norton [1834

THE BALLAD OF THE ANGEL

"WHO is it knocking in the night,
That fain would enter in?"
"The ghost of Lost Delight am I,
The sin you would not sin,
Who comes to look in your two eyes
And see what might have been."

"Oh, long ago and long ago

I cast you forth," he said,

"For that your eyes were all too blue,

Your laughing mouth too red,
And my torn soul was tangled in
The tresses of your head."

"Now mind you with what bitter words
You cast me forth from you?"

"I bade you back to that fair Hell

From whence your breath you drew,

And with great blows I broke my heart
Lest it might follow too.

"Yea, from the grasp of your white hands
I freed my hands that day,

And have I not climbed near to God
As these His henchmen may?"

"Ah, man,―ah, man! 'twas my two hands
That led you all the way."

"I hid my eyes from your two eyes
That they might see aright.”
"Yet think you 'twas a star that led
Your feet from height to height?

It was the flame of my two eyes
That drew you through the night."

With trembling hands he threw the door,
Then fell upon his knee:

"O, Vision armed and cloaked in light,
Why do you honor me?"
"The Angel of your Strength am I
Who was your sin," quoth she.

"For that you slew me long ago

My hands have raised you high;
For that mine eyes you closed, mine eyes
Are lights to lead you by;

And 'tis my touch shall swing the gates

Of Heaven when you die!"

Theodosia Garrison [18

"LOVE CAME BACK AT FALL O' DEW"

LOVE came back at fall o' dew,

Playing his old part;

But I had a word or two,

That would break his heart.

"He who comes at candlelight,
That should come before,
Must betake him to the night
From a barred door."

This the word that made us part

In the fall o' dew;

This the word that brake his heart

Yet it brake mine, too!

Lizette Woodworth Reese [1856

'Clasp my heart on thine
Now unblamed,

Since upon thy soul as well
Hangeth mine!"

Was it wrong to own,
Being truth?

Why should all the giving prove
His alone?

I had wealth and ease,
Beauty, youth:

Since my lover gave me love,
I gave these.

That was all I meant,

-To be just,

And the passion I had raised
To content.

Since he chose to change
Gold for dust,

If I gave him what he praised,
Was it strange?

Would he loved me yet,

On and on,

While I found some way undreamed, -Paid my debt!

Gave more life and more,

Till, all gone,

He should smile, "She never seemed

Mine before.

"What, she felt the while,

Must I think?

Love's so different with us men!"

He should smile:

"Dying for my sake

White and pink!

Can't we touch these bubbles then

But they break?”